The Jedi Prisoner
by SirMandokarla
Summary: When the call comes, neither Jedi hesitates. One of their own is in danger, and the Barsen'thor will use all her power to ensure everyone comes home safely. One of their own is in Imperial custody, and the Hero of Tython will cut through hundreds if that's what it takes to make a path to freedom.
1. The Call and Arrival

"You can't keep doing this. You're starting to make the ambassadors nervous. Even Holiday is starting to talk about feeling watched."

"Then all I have to do is make sure they don't notice," Zenith said.

Embry glared up at the man, unable to figure out why he couldn't just trust her. This was a peaceful ship. The most dangerous person Zenith had met was Qyzen, and Qyzen was a good man.

The Jedi closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "There is emotion, yet peace," she whispered, then turned and very deliberately walked away, leaving Zenith to whatever he chose to do. Her emotions were not invalid. She would let them run their course, then come back to discuss things with Zenith more properly.

He was a frustrating man. She wouldn't have let him on the ship if she'd had a choice. Such was the way of the galaxy, however.

"Herald, what troubles you?"

Embry looked up at the voice of her friend. Up, and up, until she could look him in the eye properly. Trandoshans were a large species, and Qyzen Fess was a good example of the kind. Add to that the need to tilt her head to look around his scaly snout to look him in his good eye, and one ended up with conversations that, while rewarding, tended to strain a young Jedi's neck.

She sighed quietly. "It's Zenith. He's been-"

Embry cut off at the sound of the ship's holocomm beeping. For an instant, she considered answering the call with a bit of the Force. Then she decided that, if she wanted to see who was calling, it was best not to risk obliterating the ship's communications terminal. It was better to walk over and answer like a regular being.

When she did press the response button, she found herself in the unusual position of not having to look up at her caller. He wasn't a species she recognized. He seemed short, with a wide head onto which all of his features were crammed. Wide eyes crowded a flattened nose and his mouth was surrounded by wrinkles that only seemed to stop when they reached pointed ears that stretched well past his shoulders.

He smiled, and Embry liked him instantly.

"Hello, Barsen'thor." He bowed, and Embry returned the gesture. "I am Oteg. I serve the Jedi Order and lead the Republic's First Expeditionary Fleet. I need your help."

"Alright. What can I do?"

Oteg looked surprised for a moment, then his smile returned, wider than before. "Thank you, Barsen'thor. I've received intelligence that the Empire has a secret prison inside the Maelstrom Nebula. It's a dangerous region, impossible to safely navigate. A Jedi prisoner possessing vital information is held captive there. I need your help to navigate the Maelstrom Nebula and free him."

That made Embry frown. "Oteg, I'm not much of a navigator. I know of a few Jedi who might be suited to it, but I'm a healer. If you think our friend is hurt, I understand why you called, but you said it was impossible to navigate the Maelstrom."

Oteg nodded. "I'll tell you more when you arrive. Never can be too careful. I'm aboard the First Expeditionary Fleet's command ship, the Dreadnought Telos. Transmitting coordinates now - and please keep them to yourself. Oteg out."

The transmission ceased abruptly, leaving a confused Embry to exchange a long look with her friend.

"That was more mysterious than I'm used to," Embry admitted. "Thoughts?"

Qyzen took his time thinking, waiting to reply until Embry was ready to start pulling him towards the cockpit. Then he said, in that gutteral, clicking language Embry barely had a handle on, "if Oteg wants Herald, must be great danger. Need for secrecy. Should not bring ambassadors."

As usual, Embry took her time replying. Not for the same reason Qyzen did - she wasn't as thoughtful as he was, by nature - but because it always took her a few moments to piece together Qyzen's meaning from her fragmented understanding of his language.

At least it was better than it had once been. When they'd first met, she'd needed to rely on the Force to feel his intentions.

"We don't have a spare ship, and I don't know how the ambassadors will feel about being left alone, even if it is a quick rescue mission." Pulling up the galaxy map on the navigation terminal, she asked, "what do you think we should do? I could sneak off, but I'd need another ship and somebody to cover for me. Maybe Holiday?"

"If you think that hologram is going to be able to keep anyone under wraps, you're not as good at this job as I thought."

Both Qyzen and Embry turned to the cockpit entrance to see the yellow twi'lek man, Zenith.

It occurred to Embry that they were, quite literally, a colourful crew, and she would have smiled if she weren't still annoyed with the man.

"Would you like to make a suggestion?" she asked honestly.

"Of course," said Zenith, striding into the cockpit and closing the door with a casual wave of his hand. His other hand stayed near the knife on his hip. "Put me in charge until you get back."

Embry frowned up at the man who was now less than half a meter from her. "Not a chance," she said lightly. "You'd tear the whole Rift Alliance apart just to be sure we didn't have a traitor."

Zenith didn't deny it.

"Herald. Other option. Dislike it, but… could leave me."

"What exactly did the lizard say?" Zenith asked.

Embry shot him a glare, then turned to look at her friend. She wasn't all that sure she'd heard him right, either.

"Qyzen," she asked, "are you sure? This sort of mission… I might need you."

She didn't say why. She didn't like to think about it.

The great hunter snorted. "Herald needs no-one. You must go. Is rescue mission. Herald's favourite. Have only one request. Take morsel troublemaker."

Embry made a face, but translated out of habit. "Qyzen is volunteering to stay. He wants you to go with me, though."

"To take me off his hands," Zenith said. "Good for him, sure, but it'll set back my surveillance and investigations, give everybody time to hide their dirty little secrets. Not a good idea."

That decided it. Qyzen might have some trouble handling the ambassadors but, without Zenith causing any trouble, he and Holiday should be able to handle anything. Even if Embry couldn't stand the freedom fighter, it was a sacrifice she was willing to make.

"Alright, Qyzen," she said, then keyed her personal holocomm. "Holiday? If you don't mind, I'd like to talk to you, please."

The cockpit terminal flickered, flashed, and Holiday's image appeared before them. She'd managed to turn the normally-blue image to her natural purple, but that didn't make it her. Holiday herself was projected by a very specific piece of technology.

"Embry, how are you? Tharan's working on this adorable little ear-"

"We have more important things to talk about," Zenith interrupted. "You've been assigned guard duty while me and the Jedi go on a mission."

Holiday shot Zenith a nasty glare, then looked at Embry.

Embry pretended not to notice the hologram shrinking slightly so they were closer to the same height. Holiday thought it was subtle.

"I'm going on a rescue mission, and we're worried the ambassadors might not like me running off." The Jedi pulled up the holomap and input the coordinates she needed to get to. "I need to get here without bringing anyone who shouldn't be, and Qyzen had volunteered to stay behind and protect the ambassadors."

"Leaving you with… him." Holiday glared at Zenith again, then raised a hand and snapped her fingers. The holomap flipped and zoomed in on a whole different section of the galaxy. "There we are. One week docking and repairs with a fleet detachment in the Core Worlds, and nobody the wiser. Everybody knows you don't go anywhere without Qyzen. I can translate for him, too, and even keep that precocious young lady from getting into too much trouble!"

Holiday shot a wink at Qyzen's blind eye and sat down primly on the holomap terminal, with the map itself in her lap. "Anything else, Embry dear?"

Embry shook her head, then opened her arms wide. It was a bit awkward in the cramped cockpit, but it was important.

Holiday's image flickered and changed imperceptibly, then stepped forward to hug Embry. It wasn't much, not anything Embry could feel, but it made Holiday happy, and that was enough. When Holiday had finished, Embry made sure to unfold her arms and let the holographic woman step back, wave, and flicker out.

"Well, now that that's dealt with," Zenith said, pushing off the wall he'd been leaning on, "let's get this over with."

He started to walk out, but Qyzen reached over Embry's head and grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Herald," Qyzen growled. "Please go first. I talk with Zenith."

Zenith aborted whatever protests he was about to make and looked at Embry for a translation. The Jedi girl looked back and forth between them.

"He wants to talk to you," she said to one, before turning back and saying, "but he can't understand you!"

"Oh," Zenith said, glaring at the clawed green hand that enveloped his shoulder. "I bet I'll understand enough. You go ahead, Jedi. We'll talk, then get the ship on its way."

Embry looked between the two of them, but neither of them spoke, like they didn't know she could sense the aggression between them.

"If one of you does something wrong," she threatened, "you're healing the hard way."

Then she slipped past Zenith and out of the cockpit. Zenith closed the door behind her.

Embry was feeling uncomfortable, and it was clear why.

"Zenith, please stop glaring at everyone."

The man didn't even reply. He just kept watching everybody around them like they had a blaster trained on him.

"At least take your hand off your blaster."

His hand moved to rest on his hip, about two centimeters away from his blaster pistol. At least he wasn't holding his rifle.

The man guiding them stopped at the next doorway and waved them past. Inside was a room filled with light, almost all of it from monitors on the walls and terminals that cris-crossed the room. On the opposite side of the little room stood three Jedi.

Oh, and a droid. A little astromech that whistled and bobbed its saucer-shaped head at them.

"Oh, Barsen'thor," Oteg called, waving up at them, "welcome. It's good to finally meet you."

Embry smiled. Oteg radiated contentment and calm. She bowed to him, and he returned the gesture, as did the human man and woman with him.

"If his size is as deceptive as yours," Zenith muttered, "he'd better be on our side."

"Oh, no," Oteg laughed. "I'm sure that, by the time young Master Azeel gets to be my age, she will truly be something to remember."

Before Embry could apologize - because Zenith wasn't going to - Oteg clapped his hands together and said, "now, introductions first, I think."

The human man wasn't tall, only a head taller than Embry herself, and the only visible parts of him were his lower face and his fingertips. The rest was covered by his robes and an unusual, if plain, white mask with no eye holes.

The woman carried herself differently than her companion. Embry couldn't say what the man's stance meant, but she'd seen the red-haired woman's stance before, and recently. It was just like Embry's sister, like she was ready to brag and laugh, but it was a competitive sort of laughter, as if she were trying to prove something.

"This is Knight Caein Thema and Padawan Kira Carsen- oh, and T7-O1, of course." Oteg grinned at the droid's indignant beep.

The man, Knight Thema, inclined his head, and Padawan Carsen gave an irreverent salute and grinned.

Yes, exactly like Embry's sister.

"And these two," Oteg gestured, "are Barsen'thor Embry Azeel and Zenith."

"How do you know my name?" Zenith growled.

"Oh," Oteg raised his hands and chuckled. "I'm sorry. I was so excited to introduce you all that I asked around to find out everyone's name. I didn't want to be rude, after all."

Embry put a hand on Zenith's arm. "Be nice. I will squish your gun."

Zenith nodded and shook her off, but she noticed how he stepped back to have a better view of the room and some distance from the people with lightsabers.

"You're the Barsen'thor?" Padawan Carsen peered at Embry skeptically, trying to get a look under her hood.

"She is," Knight Caein said, tilting his head slightly. Then he nodded at the back of the room. "Master Oteg, aren't you going to introduce our last member?"

"Hm?" Oteg looked around at where the Knight was gesturing. He even leaned over the console surrounding him to see better.

Embry couldn't see anybody, either.

"Hm," Oteg hummed as he let himself back down. "That's very interesting. I wondered if you could see our friend. That will make explaining this much easier."

"Explaining what?" Embry asked, peering over to the spot the others had been looking. She didn't see anything, and it didn't look like Zenith could, either, so it wasn't because she was short. She didn't hear anybody either. Maybe the Force?

Oh! There was something… what was that? It was vaguely familiar. Not from her ship. Not from the temple. Not Nar Shadaa or Coruscant or Alderaan-

"Please," Oteg interrupted, barely a second into Embry's wonderings, "join me. Clear your mind. Let's bring our guest into the light."

Embry almost took Zenith's hand, but he wasn't Qyzen. He wouldn't understand her needs, and they weren't close enough that they could share her sense, anyway. So, with a deep breath out, she cleared her mind and banished all the thoughts except Oteg's voice.

"Feel the Force around us. Hear its echoes. There is a voice that seeks to be heard, silenced long ago."

Thema and Carsen helped, too. They worked together, Thema and Oteg guiding, Carsen and Embry fumbling in comparison, until they were shown the way.

Then Embry felt it, and she knew what to do. With just a trickle, she poured. There was something there, like an empty pool needing to be filled, and she filled it as best she could.

Caein looked up, staring straight at her.

No. Not at her, exactly. At the path between her and what he'd been looking at before.

"How are you doing that?"

Oteg's attention shifted, too, looking at her with renewed interest.

"Oh, Barsen'thor. How fascinating."

At the same place they'd sensed something, light started to take shape. The energy Embry was giving, not her own Force but something that was just like it, was being taken away, bound to something, filling something.

The light glowed bright in the form of a man, kneeling and then standing up and looking around. He appeared worn and strong and soft at the same time. There was something reassuring just about being near him.

He smiled at her, and she felt like he'd been waiting for her, knowing she could help him, hoping-

Caein's hand came down between Embry and the figure, and the feeling stopped, like a cut string. Embry looked at him in surprise.

It was hard to tell what he was feeling from his face. Even if the top part of it hadn't been covered, his expression didn't change much.

"I don't think that technique should be used on ghosts," he said.

"The Darkness will consume all it touches. Stars will burn black. Ashes raining on lifeless worlds. Everything ends."

Everybody except Knight Thema turned to look at the Force Ghost that had just spoken. At least, it was probably a Force Ghost. It didn't feel anything like the others Embry had ever met. Maybe because it wasn't Dark?

Focus, Embry.

There was darkness to be stopped.

"What is this?" Zenith was glaring at the ghost and looking to the rest of them for an explanation.

Oteg answered. "A Jedi without physical form. His body is long dead, but a whisper of his essence remains."

"No," said Knight Thema. "Not his essence. Not his, or his essence."

The meaning was immediately clear to Embry. The ghost had felt like a shell because that was what he was, but like a shell made of other people's cupped hands. She'd filled it up - and that was why she'd felt that connection to him! A Force Bond, forged as they connected.

Thema was right. That sort of bond with a ghost could be tragically painful. The ability to cut it directly, though, that was amazing.

"I don't get it," Zenith said. "Enough Jedi riddles."

"Do you have any friends you were close with, Zenith? Ones who are no longer alive?" He didn't need to answer; she could feel his buried hurt. "This man is made of those sorts of memories. He must have been-"

"The prisoner holds the Darkness at bay, lost inside it for three hundred years. Her strength will fail, then she will become the Darkness."

The man, the ghost, spoke softer despite interrupting her. He suddenly looked exhausted, and his light was dimming. Embry instinctively reached out to give him more energy, but Knight Thema raised his hand to warn her away.

He was right. Pouring her power into this memory of a man would never be enough.

"It is alright, Barsen'thor," Oteg said. He stepped in front of the ghost, hands clasped and head down. "I will take it from here."

It was impossible to tell what technique Oteg used, but he started to glow faintly and,even as the ghost disappeared, the feeling of its presence was unmistakable.

"It's still there, isn't it?" Padawan Carsen asked.

The question wasn't for Embry. Knight Thema answered, "yes. He hasn't moved. We should leave them be."

Embry nodded along with the Padawan and Knight Thema led them all out of the room and further. They kept going until, for no discernible reason, Knight Thema stopped. Indiscernible, that was, until Embry caught up. Then a sort of pull she hadn't realized she'd been feeling just faded away.

"Oh," Padawan Carsen said softly, and Knight Thema nodded.

"Whatever that thing is, it's strong," he said, and shrugged. "In its own way."

Zenith dropped his hand to get everyone's attention. "I've been patient with you so far, but I want to know what's going on. I was told we'd been brought in for a rescue mission."

Padawan Carsen snorted softly, but closed her mouth when her master raised his hand.

Knight Thema stood up straight in front of Zenith, and it struck Embry just how tall the man was - or, really, just how tall he seemed to be. The way he walked, every step he took, convinced Embry that he must be a sort of giant. Though he was, at best, the same height as Zenith, he seemed to tower over the twi'lek.

"It's still a rescue mission," Thema explained. "Our intel just happens to be coming from somewhere unusual. We must have most of the information we need already, or we wouldn't have set out the moment you boarded."

"We what?" Embry looked around, as if there'd be some clue of the ship's whereabouts in the hallway.

"So, what, Oteg just had us meet tall, blue, and see-through so we'd be comfortable?"

"I'm sure he had a name," Knight Thema said in a tone that might have been reproachful if he hadn't been smiling at his Padawan's question.

"I want to know where we're going," Zenith snapped. He turned to leave, but stopped at Embry's hand on his arm.

"That can wait," she told him, though she desperately wanted to find out for herself. "Don't you want to get to know your squadmates?"

Zenith raised an eyebrow and looked back at the other two Jedi. He could put two and two together just as well as she could, the question was whether he was going to be his usual prickly self around potential allies.

Well, potential allies who weren't Embry. It might be a different case with her, since they kept disagreeing about how to treat people.

Luckily, Zenith nodded, though he didn't volunteer to start and introduce himself. So Embry started.

"It's nice to meet you," she said, stepping forward to bow to each of the Knight, Padawan, and droid in turn. "My name is Embry Azeel. I'm a healer, and I like exploring."

The little astromech droid, whose name Emby was definitely going to remember next time somebody said it, rolled forwards and gave a series of friendly-sounding beeps.

Embry knelt down on the metal floor, smiling at the droid but unsure what to say.

"T7 says he's happy to meet you. He's a fan and hopes we'll all work well together." Knight Thema translated the droid's words as soon as the beeping finished, then added, "healer seems like a modest way of introducing yourself, Barsen'thor."

"That's about what I said," Zenith whispered so quietly Embry had to guess what he'd said. It wasn't hard. It was about what he'd said, even if it had come out sounding more suspicious.

She ignored Zenith and smiled brightly. "A fan? I've never had one of those before. Does that mean you'd like to go adventuring together?"

A few happy beeps and boodles, which didn't need to be translated.

"Great! Want to start by exploring the ship?"

"Jedi…"

Knight Thema translated a few beeps and whirs, "T7 already has the ship's schematics downloaded."

"Well, that's no fun," Embry sighed, then brightened. "But you still haven't met the people here. Oh, and you could erase the files." She gasped. "You could get lost in the same place as many times as you want!"

T7 said something yes-sounding, but Padawan Carsen rebuked him. "Don't actually consider it!"

All the while, Knight Thema stood by with a small smile on his face, as if he were amused but focusing on listening rather than watching.

"My name is Caein Thema," he said once his Padawan had quieted down. "I am a loyal Knight of the Jedi Order. If I can serve you in any way, please don't hesitate to ask."

Embry made a face. The more bossy parts of being a Jedi Master weren't her favourite, but most people didn't go out of their way to remind her of them. Caein Thema- wait…

She squinted at him. "Caein, like the Hero of Tython?"

Knight Thema nodded and Embry clapped her hands together.

"You saved the Jedi Temple! That must have been exciting." Then she looked at T7 and Padawan Carsen. "I bet you were there, too, weren't you? The Republic seems to always pick just one person to call a hero, don't they? Between me, Qyzen, Tharan, and Holiday, I really think they just wanted a Jedi to be Barsen'thor. Did you have fun?"

The three of them were a little stunned, apparently. She'd probably she'd the questions a little fast. That was alright. She just waited until they caught their breath.

"We were there," Padawan Carsen said eventually. "T7 basically handled the whole ship. I just do what he does, only slower." She tilted her head to Caein as she finished speaking.

"Kira is being modest," said the senior Jedi. "She helped more than she knows."

Kira rolled her eyes and grumbled, "he always says that," but there was a hint of blush in her cheeks, too.

Embry turned to Zenith expectantly. He stared back at her, but she held his gaze until he caved. With a sigh, he said, "Zenith. Professional insurgent. I'm here to do a job, and it better be worth it."

"We're here to save somebody," Embry told him sternly. "Of course it's worth it."

"Wasting lives on a prison break could be a major setback for moral and the war effort," Zenith argued.

"I imagine that is why we were called in," Knight Caein said mildly.

"I dunno, Cae," said Padawan Carsen, tilting her head towards Embry, "when was the last time anyone thought you needed backup?"

"Not since before you joined me, Kira." He smiled, and it seemed he was smiling at his Padawan even when he never looked at her. "It looks like Oteg is done with his contact."

That hadn't taken as long as Embry had been expecting. She'd be disappointed if it didn't mean that they'd be starting their rescue mission that much sooner.

Oteg looked around with a little surprise when he stepped through the door. "Oh," he said happily, "good. I expected you might have already wandered off. This will make things much easier."

He pulled out a holocommunicator and, when a figure appeared in it, greeted the man. "Captain."

The man saluted. "Oteg, sir."

"We'll be off to Taral V, if you don't mind," said the little Jedi Master. "We'll need the special shuttle ready for our friends."

The captain nodded. "At once. And where will you be?"

Oteg looked around at the five of them, all watching expectantly. He smiled.

"I think it's time to bring our friends up to speed on some of the details of our plan. I'll accompany them to the shuttle and meet up with you later."

The captain nodded again, said his farewell, and then the call ended and Oteg smiled up at them all happily.

"This way," he said, beginning to walk down the hall. "The unfortunate news is that I might not be as quick as you'll like, but fortunately there is quite a bit to tell you about. You see, our ally has just revealed the location of a Gree computer that will allow us to navigate the Maelstrom Nebula…"

"We're about to burn a valuable espionage resource on the chance of being able to find a device that might let us navigate our way to a prison to release a single person," Zenith grumbled.

"Yep," said Padawan Carsen. "So shove over. Cae and T7 are getting us there in one piece whether we like it or not."

Embry gave the Padawan a skeptical look. Why wouldn't they want to get to Taral V in one piece? The other girl wasn't looking, though, so she didn't notice.

Then the captured Imperial shuttle lifted off and left its parent ship at a speed that took other concerns from Embry's mind.

Padawan Carsen, who'd still been in the middle of buckling herself in, hit the floor hard. "Ow! Hey, watch the speed, Cae! We're supposed to be friendlies!"

As she cautiously pulled herself back up her seat, she muttered, "every single time."

"You know I can read your lips," Knight Thema called back from the cockpit.

"No, he can't," Padawan Carsen grumbled as she buckled herself in and caught Zenith's indignant look. "He just says that to keep me from talking behind his back."

She caught Embry's look, which was somewhere between reproachful and amused.

"I don't say anything bad!"

Embry laughed and Zenith grunted.

Though the trip was with, it was swift. Oteg and Knight Caein kept them informed as they passed out of the First Expeditionary fleet's range and into Taral V's sensor range. According to T7, the planet's forces sent ship to stop them, but Padawan Carsen assured them it was fine.

It was. Even with Zenith's naysaying, if it hadn't been for Oteg and T7's constant updates, they'd never have known they were in any danger. And, really, they weren't. According to Oteg, the Imperials never even suspected they were anything but a supply transport.

The ship landed so soon after it took off that Embry barely had time to wonder what the planet was really like, underneath all the words and numbers Oteg had filled the time before launch with.

"Everybody-" Knight Caein caught himself, snapping his mouth closed as he came out of the cockpit. He made a grimace and bowed his head. "Sorry, Master Azeel."

Embry almost laughed. She'd been a Jedi Master for barely two months and met so few Jedi in that time. Now she was getting deference!

A part of her was tempted to play a joke, maybe tease Caein or boss him around, but there was somebody in trouble and that would just waste time.

"All is well, Knight Thema." She was already moving for the exit. "Let's go find our supercomputer."

They stormed out of the ship into a jungle that Embry wished she could stop and admire. It was so green and tall, reaching so high it was hard to see the grey of the clouds above. And loud! Rain pelted the leaves above more like waves from the sky than drops, but the forest was so dense that the water fell from above in isolated, glimmering streams.

"Woah," Padawan Carsen said. "You should see this, Cae."

"I can." The Knight came up and matched Embry's run with long strides of his own.

"No, I mean you should really _see_ this."

Before Embry could ask what that meant, Knight Caein ignited his lightsabers. "Beasts," was all he said before he leapt through the air as a streak of light. Whatever was out there in the darkness, only Padawan Carsen reacted quickly enough to join Knight Thema before it died.

"Knight Thema!" Embry called out, "we have no time for that!"

She'd hoped that, without Qyzen on the mission, she'd get a bit of a break from convincing her team not to kill anyone. As she ran with Zenith, though, the other two Jedi reappeared beside them, like they'd never been diverted at all.

They were so fast.

"Don't attack unless you absolutely have to," she called.

As they ran, Embry reached out around them, coaxing the Force into walls that blocked them from sight and harm by whatever might surround their path. She added her own power, protecting them from anything short of a missile barrage, and had more than enough to spare for her companions. She have each of them a steady trickle of power, trusting the Force and their bodies to know what to do with it.

A small part of her thought about how she couldn't have done such a thing a month and a half ago, when she'd been nearly dead, drained of the Force by a ritual protecting the Jedi Order. Another party guessed that she probably never could have done this before. She'd only learned how to conserve her power enough for something like this recently, because the rest had been drained from her.

Another lesson that good things came of doing the right thing. Maybe she should discuss that with Zenith.

No, better not. That sort of thing often resulted in more fighting than progress. She'd just have to make sure he learned it on his own time, without hurting anyone in the process.

"The Imperial outpost is just ahead," said Knight Thema.

Before Embry could ask how he knew that, amongst all the trees, Kira asked, "how far?"

"Two hundred metres. Right where-" his lightsabers ignited. "Patrol headed right for us."

"How long 'til they see us?"

The Knight gave his Padawan an exasperated look.

"Right. Uh… Master Azeel?"

Embry grit her teeth and gave the order. "Incapacitate them. Minor injuries only. I don't want to exhaust myself too early."

"What's that-" The other woman cut off as her master leapt forward, passing through three rays of moonlight in the time it took to blink. By the time Padawan Carsen started running to catch up, Knight Thema had rebounded off of a tree and the sounds of startled yells came to them.

Embry started running after them as the yells turned to screams. With how short her strides were, even compared to Zenith's more natural ones, she didn't reach the site until the screaming had gone silent and neither of her fellow Jedi were anywhere to be seen.

Embry fell to her knees beside the nearest body, touching it to make her efforts easier but spreading her powers across all of them.

All dead. The spark of life had fled their bodies as if in terror.

Zenith had a hand to his aural nub and was listening intently. He kept an eye on their surroundings and reported, "Oteg says your comrades are already near the outpost. We've got to regroup with them."

Embry nodded, swept the ground with just enough power to trick the things that ate the dead to leave these bodies alone for now, and stood and ran.

There was a chance that, after all this was over, those men and women could be returned to their families. For those who didn't understand the Force, that might be the last comfort Embry could bring them.

What she needed now was to save those she could.

The jungle caught at her robes, but Zenith quickly found a path the patrols used and they made what she hoped was good time.

When they reached the edge of the outpost with its dull metal warring with the forest around it, they found Knight and Padawan in a standoff with a man and…

"Oh," Embry said softly.

Zenith nodded. Neither of them slowed.

Standing near the Imperial left standing was a great humanoid creature, taller by three times than Zenith, and a scaled green. Its arms were long, with clawed hands, and it hunched forward and ready to lash out or bite with its grinning, fanged mouth.

Knight Thema had his blades ready, with Padawan Carsen at his side.

"That is enough," Embry said firmly.

Her voice carried in the tense silence and all four of those in the standoff turned to look at her.

The healer picked her way around bodies as she walked closer. There weren't many, this hadn't been a large outpost, but it looked like only one person was still alive in the whole place.

It felt like it, too. Embry poured energy into the area around her as she walked, hoping for some sort of response, but none came. Every one of them was dead where they lay. All the energy did was spill into the ground, causing seeds to grow and push their way through the metal and 'crete road.

"My name is Embry Azeel," she said as she approached. "I am here on behalf of the Jedi Order on a rescue mission."

She looked around at the bodies, shaking her head, and tried to catch the soldier's eyes.

"Enough people have died today." Embry gestured to the tall creature near the soldier and wondered if she and Qyzen looked like that to strangers, a great green monster towering over a comparatively frail person. "Your friend is loyal, and I know you want to fight for your people, but I hope to save a life today, if I can. There's no need for anyone else to be hurt."

The soldier glared back at her, though he kept his gun pointed at the Jedi Knight. He gestured slightly with his head. "Look around you, Jedi. Not many more to be hurt, and I don't plan on disgracing my family by letting the Republic take our base. Me and Ripper'll kill at least one of you before we fall."

Embry looked up at the tall creature, Ripper. It watched her intently, almost intelligently.

"And do you want Ripper to die, Mr…?"

The soldier spat to the side. "What does my name matter to you?"

Embry stepped closer, close enough that, in the quiet, she could whisper and the man would hear.

"It matters," she said, "because there are many men and women who died here who will never see their families again, never wake to another sunrise or get the chance to make a dream come true. I won't ever be able to ask them their names. Won't you tell me yours?"

He almost seemed to be considering it, then his gaze shifted and he glared past Embry.

"Zenith," Embry said softly, "put the gun away. This man is on his own world. We're the invaders here."

"Yes," the man raised his gun.

Embry put her hand up. "Knight Thema." The man stopped with his lightsabers raised high. "I am not in any danger and neither is the mission. Let me talk."

"Not in any danger?" The soldier laughed incredulously. "I've heard of Jedi tricks, but you don't even have your lightsaber. I could shoot you right now and-"

"And you would die," Embry said sadly, "and Ripper soon after. Please, there has been enough death today. Hatred is a terrible thing to die for. Live, and you can bring your men and women home for their families. The love they had deserves that much."

The soldier's face twisted in a confused grimace. "Emperor's breath, you actually believe what you're saying, don't you?" He lowered his gun hesitantly, then raised a hand to Ripper.

"Stand down, boy," he said softly.

The massive creature growled softly and stepped backward a few steps, crouching low as if to sit down.

"Thank you," Embry said. To Zenith, she said, "give Oteg the access he needs. We will stay outside and help Mr…"

She looked at the Imperial soldier apologetically.

"Captain Shivanek," he said. He didn't meet her eyes. He looked ashamed.

He didn't deserve that.

"Captain Shivanek," Embry repeated, hoping she sounded properly respectful. She looked at Knight Thema, who didn't look happy at all. "Let's start while Zenith finishes his work. Force willing, nobody else needs to be hurt today."

She hoped that was enough to tell the Knight what he'd done was wrong. It didn't feel like her place to be telling him such things, but she was a Master now and it wasn't worth people's lives for her to feel comfortable. If what it took for Knight Thema and Padawan Carsen to stop their killing was for Embry to pull rank, she would do that.

It was difficult, gathering bodies. For Captain Shivanek, he knew many of the dead and it must have hurt him to see them all. For Embry, it was a more physical thing. She accepted the deaths, though she regretted them, and she was used to the horrors that war made of living beings. It was just that she was small. She ended up carrying parts, halves or limbs that had been cleaved from their owners.

Caein Thema and Kira Carsen were especially reluctant, and hopefully the suppressed horror on Padawan Carsen's face was a sign she was learning the value of sentient life.

Zenith came out while Embry was helping Captain Shivanek load Ripper's arms with people's remains. Embry cut off her explanation of how she could preserve the bodies to look at the twi'lek man.

"It's done," he called. "Let's go."

Embry nodded. With Oteg's slicers in control of the local security network, they had their way into the main facility.

She stepped away from Ripper and the captain."There is death," she admitted, drawing power into herself until she felt more alive inside than the jungle around them. She drew the power in until it sang within her, growing upon itself in waves. As it reached a crescendo, she declared, "and yet there is the Force."

It didn't explode from her. Such a thing would be violent, uncontrolled. This was healing, in its own way, and that Embry would admit she had a talent for. The power flowed in a torrent like a dam breaking, like a wave that carried with it all the force of the tide at once, and yet with the grace and effect of a stream on a parched mouth.

Embry let her hands fall, momentarily spent. She turned to Captain Shivanek with a reassuring smile. "Everything will be alright, Captain. Take your people to their families."

She gave the man and his pet a small wave and went to join the others. Knight Thema was shaking his head as if to clear it and Zenith was purposely ignoring her, but they came with her when she walked past them out of the outpost.

"That was incredible," Padawan Carsen said, the first one to speak as the Imperial compound faded into the trees behind them. "But he's just going to get a new command and probably kill a lot of people with that monster of his."

Zenith sighed. "I've told her that."

"Yes," Embry agreed, "you have. You've lived under the Imperials, you've seen more of the cruelty they can give than anyone I know."

"Sounds like good reasons to kill them," Knight Thema growled.

She shook her head, and did so all the more when Zenith nodded, even hesitantly.

"No. They don't do it because they're inherently evil, they do it because they don't understand better or think of the ones they hurt as people. Today, Captain Shivanek saw different."

"The entire Empire is corrupted by the Dark Side," Knight Thema said. "Nothing is going to change that."

Embry almost argued in detail, almost opened her mouth to explain the teachings of Rajivari, Bastila Shan, and others who saw the Force as something other than simple dark and light. But she bit her tongue. A mission wasn't the time for deep philosophy. So all she said was, "as long as there's a little light in the darkness, people have a chance to find a way out."

With that, she led the way to the central research base in quiet.


	2. The Fire and Solution

In spite of the quiet, there were looks traded. Padawan Carsen kept whispering to Knight Thema, whose responses, while terse, didn't keep the Padawan from glancing back at Embry every so often.

Sometimes animals came out of the jungle to attack them. In the dim light, these took everyone but Knight Thema by surprise, but after the first pack of creatures died at his hands, Embry ordered him to stop. She'd had more than enough of his rushing to fight before any other solution, and instead she decided to handle the problem herself.

It only took a few breaths and enough focus that she had to ask Zenith to guide her steps in the dark. After that, the barrier she created around the group kept and wild animals from getting close. Most reached her barrier and turned away, as confused as they were frustrated. That was good. Better that than dead.

Soon enough, Knight Thema slowed to walk near her. Sidelong, he asked, "Master Azeel, are you sure you won't exhaust yourself before we reach the research facility? I can barely see through the power you're putting out. I didn't know that was possible."

Embry frowned. "Neither did I," she said, lowering her output as much as she thought was safe. "Does it have to do with how you can see with your eyes covered?"

Padawan Carsen snorted, but Knight Thema only tilted his head. "No-"

He cut himself off, turning to stare straight ahead. "What's he doing here?"

A voice echoed through the clearing. "A rain of fire is coming." The deep voice, calm and calming, was completely at odds with the warning it delivered. "The scarred man's hatred burns everything."

"Cae…"

"Oteg's ghost," Embry murmured.

Zenith grunted. "Not exactly convenient intel. Do all Jedi ghosts talk in riddles?"

"It's not just Jedi ghosts," Embry said with a smile, thinking of a friend back on Tython.

"It's not hard to guess that a rain of fire is big trouble." Caein started moving faster as he spoke. "Kira, do we know any scarred men?"

"Literally or metaphorically?"

"I have no idea."

Embry hurried after them, running where the taller members of the team jogged. She was starting to worry how much effort it was to hold her shield ready when Zenith said, "stop wasting time protecting us, Jedi."

Embry stared at him, almost offended, but he just continued, "if a rain of fire is as bad as it sounds, I'd rather you didn't exhaust yourself dealing with beasts-" he gestured as Knight Thema warded off a Sleen by nearly putting a blade through its neck, "- when he can do that all day."

"I can do both," Embry insisted, and almost called out to the Knight to come back into her protection. He was hurrying ahead too quickly. If he left them behind again, she didn't want to think of what he might do to the main Imperial base.

Zenith shook his head and called out, "Jedi, form up!" Then he said, more quietly, "we're about to head into a firefight. No amount of heartfelt words are going to change that. If there's anything literal to that ghost's warning and you have to keep us from burning up with this forest, can you manage that on top of blaster fire and this trip through the jungle?"

Embry hesitated, trying guess how much effort it would take to protect the entire base from a forest fire and maybe falling trees. That, on top of protecting the team from Imperial attacks and, worse, protecting the Imperials from the other Jedi of necessary. And then there was healing them all through the heat and smoke, and any efforts she could make to numb the pain of such an experience. How big had the base been? How many people and how far would she have to reach?

Zenith took her hesitation as admission and waved the pair of Jedi swordsmen closer. "We're going to need to move as a group. Azeel's going to drop her shield. Stick close."

"Who put-"

Knight Thema put out hand to silence his Padawan. "Thank you. Kira and I have decided that, whatever the warning means, we should hurry." He looked in Embry's direction, but not quite at her. "The base is close. How quickly can you move?"

Embry frowned. The direction this was going made it more likely they would make it to the base before anything catastrophic happened, but made it all the more likely someone would be hurt in the attack on the base.

Worse, if she knew anything about prophecy, it was that moving to head one off before understanding it would be at least as bad as doing nothing. Though she supposed that was an excellent argument for conserving her power until she knew what would go wrong.

"I am… not fast," she admitted at Knight Thema's question. "But I will do my best."

The Knight nodded. "Thank you, Master Azeel. We will do our best to keep you and Zenith safe without slowing you down."

Almost as one, they turned to continue forward. Then Knight Thema froze, and a second later Embry heard the ghost's voice, this time as a whisper.

"There is no hope for those who flee the hand of mercy."

Embry flinched, remembering a scant month ago on Balmorra when a group of soldiers had panicked and run from a charging swarm Colicoids. Without the skill to pull the troops back, she'd been forced to attack the giant insects. Even then, she hadn't saved most of the squad.

The image of a giant six-legged creature crushed and broken with a Republic soldier impaled on its talons was fresh in her mind.

"Not Republic blood," Knight Thema growled.

"What?"

The swordsman looked Embry's way and shook his head. "It's nothing. The ghost had more to say, but nothing useful."

"He said something to me, too," his Padawan chimed in, "but nothing about blood. Did you do something to tick it off?"

Knight Thema gave a snort. Then he said, "run."

What he did wasn't really suiting action to word, in that he didn't so much run as become a sort of tan-coloured wind that sometimes exploded into a comment whirlwind when they passed aggressive local wildlife. Or an unfortunate Imperial patrol.

Embry was forced to move at a dead sprint, and even then it felt like she had hours to reach out and touch the bodies her Jedi teammates left behind. Everything they touched died, giving her no chance to save anybody she passed. Yet, even though she never even had to slow in her onward charge, Thema and Carsen still seemed to pull further and further ahead with each minute.

"What are you doing?"

Embry gave Zenith a questioning, somewhat indignant look. Her hood had fallen back in her running, which was for the best, since he could see her face while she didn't have the breath to reply.

Was he implying she shouldn't be doing what she could for the soldiers who died defending their people?

What little that was…

"That Jedi's got the right idea. You disagree. Use the chain of command, if the Jedi have one. Stop competing with him." He shot her a glare. "On Balmorra, that gets normal people killed. Is it supposed to be different for Jedi?"

Embry stared at the Twi'lek rebel. She hadn't been- she was certainly trying to keep him from killing people, but competition?

"Either give him an order or get out of his way, Jedi. Stop getting in each other's way."

This didn't seem a sensible solution to Embry. Even if she hadn't realized she was attempting it this time, the way she'd always done things seemed to set an example for others.

But not for Caein Thema, she thought as they passed another pair of soldiers, each with a lightsaber wound that passed right through their heart. That made eight since they'd left the outpost, none of whom had been able to raise an alarm, but also none who Embry could save.

Qyzen would have understood that, in his own way. Zenith just ignored the bodies entirely, as obstacles already overcome.

There had to be a way to make him understand that what her fellow Jedi were doing wasn't what the Force was meant for. It told her so, she could feel it every time she touched it, with every breath she took.

The sooner this war was over, the sooner she could begin doing what she was meant for.

Right now, though, she couldn't even muster the breath to argue with Zenith, not while she had to take three strides for every two of his.

So she ran. One foot in front of the other, chasing after Knight Thema and Padawan Carsen until, eventually, they reached the walls of the Imperial research base.

The others stood there at the base of the wall, inspecting the black height of duracrete and discussing.

Zenith turned to her when she arrived, panting and sweating with her hands on her knees.

"Undefended section," he told her briskly. "Too high for me or the Padawan to jump. They think we can fight our way through the gates, I told them you could handle this."

Embry stood up, breath already back as the Force sped up her body's recovery. She reached out and, with barely a wave, did the same for Zenith and Padawan Carsen. Knight Thema seemed neither winded nor fatigued, but Embry gave him just a drop of energy, regardless.

Then she drew in the Force, willing it into shape that all but refused to hold. She needed raw power, and it was only the promise that there was nobody on the other side that let her build such an attack.

Knight Thema drew in a breath and stepped back, Padawan Carsen followed him instinctively. Zenith only stood behind Embry with his rifle ready.

As the power coalesced, Embry sent the smallest fractions of it to shelter herself and her companions in shields of Force. That part, at least, took no effort at all. Zenith made an appreciative grunt, but Knight Thema made a dismissive gesture.

Embry made the decision to ignore that. It was hard enough, concentrating on holding in the power she was gathering, and they need to establish a plan, fast.

"Zenith," Embry asked, "do you know where the computer will be stored?"

He shook his head. "Nothing but a guess. Imperials like to build everything to templates. Computer'll be in the research building. Center of the base."

"Then we will make directly for that building," Embry said. She looked straight at the other Jedi. "There will be no more deaths we can prevent. We're here for a computer and more lives have been lost for that than I can accept. Don't kill anybody you don't have to."

Caein Thema frowned. "Master Azeel, these are Imperials. If we don't kill them here, eventually they will kill Republic citizens, their subordinates, or even their own civilians."

Embry glared up at the man. "The Jedi Order was not built to train killers. Nobody else does, Knight Thema. Now, please, get behind me. I am not very good at this."

They did get behind her, which was good, because she wasn't exaggerating. It felt like the Force was fighting her, knowing what it was going to be used for and unwilling to bend to the task. If it escaped without her guidance, it would take all the power of her protection to save them.

But she did guide it. She reached out her hands and, with a motion just like a gentle push, unleashed the Force on the base's wall.

It disappeared. There was a sound so loud it became inaudible and Embry had to heal the entire team's eardrums, and the wall simply seemed to disappear.

"Fierfek," Zenith breathed. "Could have left us some cover, Jedi."

Knight Thema shook his head and started forward without a word, ignoring even Kira's murmured, "did my eardrums just burst?"

Embry tried not to be chagrined. She shouldn't have wasted the time talking before breaking down the wall. She hadn't meant to gather nearly so much Force energy. All she could do was run into the base to see how many people she'd hurt with her mistake.

Nobody had been as near to the blast as they had. Even so, a few groups of soldiers lay, curled up and clutching their heads, where the dust was settling around the break-in. Embry didn't heal them. Not yet. All that could come to was more danger for them. Instead, she asked the Force to nurse them so that, once this was over, at least they wouldn't remember the pain they'd gone through.

It was a better attack than the one on the outpost. With the element of surprise on their side, they made it halfway across the outer clearing before the alarm was raised. As close as she was to the fighting, Embry was able to protect most of those the others attacked, at least somewhat. And her orders, if they could be called that, were being followed. Imperials who didn't get in their way were safe.

Then the alarm was raised, and they found out how well defended the base was.

Turrets grew from the corners of seemingly every building. Five seconds after that, soldiers started pouring from any building bigger than a couple of rooms. Knight Thema looked like he was about to charge a group of them until blast shields began to close on every door and window in the compound.

"What are they researching here?!" Zenith yelled over the alarms.

"We're not gonna make it!" Padawan Carsen pointed at the central building. Embry wasn't a great judge of speed, but it was obvious that she, at least, wouldn't make it even halfway before the doors slammed shut. "Cae!"

In some dim corner of her mind, Embry Azeel thought, "that was fast," even as the rest of her brain was only beginning to ask, "can he make it?"

Caein Thema was standing in between the blast doors closing in from either side, hands outstretched and facing into the building. The doors, perhaps a meter from his fingertips on either side, were slowed from slamming shut to grinding closed.

The soldiers swarming the compound opened fire on him half a second later. With every blaster bolt he dodged, the doors pushed closer, until he was holding them open with his bare hands.

Then a blaster bolt hit him. Hit him and seared through his shoulder.

No. That wasn't supposed to happen. Embry had given him a shield! They were working. A few blaster bolts had splashed off of both her and Zenith's barriers. There'd been no surprises from the soldiers' weaponry or the turrets. How had that shot gotten through?

Embry cut off the chain of thought and reached out, healing the Knight's shoulder. The shield she wrapped him in shimmered across his form in the same moment that Padawan Carsen came between him and the blaster fire, lightsaber flashing.

Even so, Knight Thema was struggling, forearms flat against the doors. Somehow he was holding them steady, but Embry didn't have to use her Force senses to see the agony he was in.

They weren't going to make it in time, and Embry didn't think she had the control to knock down durasteel and leave the building intact.

Padawan Carsen was yelling something, but Zenith's voice drowned her out.

"Jedi!" He grabbed her wrist, and Embry saw his characteristic determination past the flashes of blaster bolts against his shield. "Throw us!"

Throw- was he insane? She didn't have that kind of control. Sure, she could throw herself around a bit, but she almost never landed where she wanted, and half the time she ended up with broken bones. Worse, she'd have to bring her barriers down or the force of it simply wouldn't affect them.

"We can't-"

"Jedi." Zenith winced as a blaster bolt splashed across his eyes. "It's this or fight the entire base."

Which they could do, Embry knew. She'd fought far worse than this with Qyzen, Holiday, and Tharan, and even once with Zenith, on Balmorra. But all she wanted was to retrieve the computer they needed and leave.

There might be an option.

It took all of a second and a half to prepare, and that was almost too much. Padawan Carsen was using one hand to will the blast doors from crushing her master and the other to deflect what she could, and it was only the Force barrier surrounding her that saved her life as she put her body between the Imperial soldiers and her master.

When she was ready, Embry pulled Zenith close and yelled, "duck!"

There was a half a second's lull in the blaster fire as Embry's wide barrier formed almost on top of the Imperial forces. Then the wave of power came, off-center but tapered by another pair of barriers, like a corridor. The personal shields over Zenith and Embry dropped in almost the same instant it hit.

In the first moment of impact, Embry knew they were off course. In the second, two of her ribs cracked and she realized they were about to slam into her guiding barriers with enough force to break a lot more.

In the third moment, Zenith shifted his weight and their whole center of mass.

Embry spent half a second in mid-air wondering if she could make her Force-formed corridor slippery before they skittered across it, careened away, then slammed into Padawan Carsen and Knight Thema before, miraculously, rolling into the building as the doors crashed shut with a groan.

Three fractures and a torn tendon, Embry tallied dully, and simply mended everything with a thought before moving on to the others. Zenith had a concussion and a strained neck, Padawan Carsen was mostly bruises, and Knight Thema…

Embry winced and paid special attention to knitting together the bones and muscles across the man's arms and back.

"What the sithspit was that?!"

Padawan Carsen's yell almost drowned out the sound of another voice, but Embry caught a hint of a calm, Imperial voice saying something she couldn't make out. Then another one, a fearful voice, spoke up.

"D- don't any of you move!"

Embry turned her head to see a portly little man in an Imperial Officer's uniform pointing a gun at them.

Zenith shot him.

Embry gaped while Knight Thema said something to his Padawan about her language. Then she pulled herself from the pile, ignoring the open holocom behind the fallen Imperial, and knelt down by the man.

It only took a moment to see he would be alright. He was well within Embry's power to heal, and she spared him and let his body shut down to sleep off any trauma she hadn't healed herself. It was more efficient than healing an enemy combatant completely and it would keep him safely out of the fight.

"Oh, bravo," drawled that calm Imperial voice. Embry looked up to see a solidly built man in Moff's uniform grey shimmering on the holocommunicator against the next wall. On closer inspection, he had elegantly cut, short dark hair and a face that would have been handsome if not for the burns across one side of it.

"That was quite the entrance," the man continued. "As first impressions go, ignominious, but there's still the company you keep."

He leaned over to peer past Embry. "Caein Thema. You've been busy since we last met. Saved Coruscant, Tython. Pity about Uphrades, but you can't win them all."

Knight Thema ground his teeth. "Kira," he growled, "do we know this man?"

"What are you-"

Thema held up a hand to silence Zenith, and Padawan Carsen spoke up.

"Yep. Moff Scarface." There was a short, but meaningful silence between the pair, then the Padawan elaborated, "from the Esseles."

Knight Thema grunted acknowledgement, then turned vaguely in the direction of the holocommunicator and said, "we were in a hurry last time. I'll make sure you're dead before we leave."

The Moff seemed much less unsettled by the declaration than Embry was. He just gave a cold smile and said, "no, I don't think you will. You see, I'm more than capable of judging when someone is liable to become too much of a threat to leave alive, and I pride myself in my ability to hold a grudge. So, solving two problems with one stroke-"

The ground tumbled and distant explosions were muffled by the building's armoured walls.

"-I've ordered the orbital bombardment of your position."

Embry gasped. "You can't do that! Without targeting assistance, you'll level the whole jungle! You'll kill your own people!"

Continued rumbling, both closer and more distant, emphasized her words.

"My dear," the cruel man said, "take at least a small note of who you're speaking to before you open your mouth, and perhaps imagine how much I care. When-"

Embry didn't stay to listen, not as the rumbling grew in intensity and she started to hear faint screams through the walls. She yelled to Zenith, "open the doors!" Then she drew in as much power as she could, as fast as she could, and poured it into the largest barrier she'd ever created.

An instant later, she felt the agony of overreaching her powers as orbital bombardment rained down against her powers. She gasped, then immediately started breathing heavily, dragging in sure that already felt too little, too late.

"Hurry," she begged as the shaking subsided. She'd have said more, but she couldn't breath, couldn't think as all the power that had ever touched her flowed into a barrier protecting dozens or hundreds of betrayed soldiers.

And nobody else moved.

She looked around, wide-eyed, as all four others who could hear her just stood, watching her blankly.

Knight Thema slashed into the holocom almost casually, utterly destroying it. Then he said, "stop that. We need to get down to the labs and you're going to kill yourself."

"Is she…" Padawan Carsen trailed off.

Her master nodded. "Yeah. It's pretty blinding. I hate to ask, but could you two carry her down, at least until we're deep enough to survive the bombardment?"

Carsen moved, but Zenith still stood there. When the Padawan's hand touched Embry's shoulder, Zenith raised his hand to forestall the other two.

"Jedi." He glared into Embry's eyes as she slowly sank to her knees. "You're about to render yourself unfit for command. The people out there are enemy personnel. They'll die whatever you do. We need you for the mission."

Embry didn't understand what Zenith was saying. Command? Unfit? All she could think about was how the Force was hurting her, how it was trying so hard and she wasn't powerful enough. It was all she could do to keep the barrier over the base up, and even then blasts kept making it through, crashing through her power like a rock into water. People were dying. She could feel it.

Zenith said something else, a name or a title, but it didn't stick in Embry's mind.

She redirected power as it came to her, faster than it came to her.

All will be well, trust in the Force. All will be well, trust in the Force. All will be well…

* * *

Zenith snapped his fingers in the Barsen'thor's face, but she didn't respond, only slumped there with glassy eyes, mouthing something over and over again.

He cursed. He wouldn't say he trusted Master Azeel - he wouldn't say that about anybody - but at least the woman was predictable. The twi'lek eyed the other two Jedi warily.

"I second that." the Jedi girl nodded at Zenith's curse. Then she reached over and put a shoulder under Embry's arm.

"I've got her," Zenith snapped, pulling the tiny Jedi away and into his arms.

The kid shot him an annoyed glare, but then shrugged and looked at the other one. The fast one.

"Is she doing what I think she's doing?"

Caein gave an affirmative grunt.

"Can't you stop it?"

Jedi, always speaking in riddles. At least it wasn't hard to guess what they were talking about. One of Embry's Force bubbles was protecting the entire base from an orbital bombardment and the effort was killing her. It needed to be stopped.

Caein shook his head. "No. I'm afraid to try. She keeps pouring energy into the barrier; if I cut her off completely, she might try to rebuild the whole thing at once."

He seemed to peer at the little Jedi, and Zenith would swear he was squinting behind his mask, like he was staring at a bright light.

"We need to figure out something, though." The Jedi grimaced. "I don't know whether she's offering it up for extra power or tearing it out with all the power she's putting through, but this barrier's taking her living Force from her."

He looked at Zenith and offered the three-word explanation.

"It's killing her."

Zenith growled and hefted Master Azeel, who couldn't have weighed forty kilos with her robes soaking wet. "It's the Imperials. She won't leave them to die. Suicidal, bleeding-heart idiot."

The Jedi swordsman nodded. "Alright. Then we open the doors, I go out and kill all the Imperials, and we get underground so there's no reason for her to keep the barrier up."

"There are civilians here," Kira protested.

"Mostly below us," Caein replied, easily dismissing the others. "And any above ground are going to die, anyway."

Zenith almost didn't speak up. As the Padawan girl nodded and the swordsman moved to the access panel, he stayed silent, because he'd come to the realization that he was afraid of this man.

He'd heard a rumour or two about the Hero of Tython. Everyone had, with the propaganda campaigns the Republic started running at the beginning of the war. He'd heard of the man's bravery, even dismissed tall tales of the Jedi's speed. What didn't make it into the holocasts was his ruthlessness.

Zenith was scared of Caein Thema. Nobody should kill that quickly and efficiently, that intimately, and leave a trail of bodies behind with only the question of if there were more.

There was no doubt in Zenith's mind that the Jedi could and would slaughter the entire base of Imperials. And good riddance to them. Even the scientists, who were on a military base working to find better ways to kill Republic citizens.

It would be easy to approve of a man like that, who could get the job done when other Jedi stood by, wringing their hands over what counted as appropriate force. But there was a nagging feeling that this man would go through anyone, even allies, to get at the Empire.

And with the first realization came a second, a decision he'd made but never registered.

Zenith wasn't afraid of Embry Azeel, couldn't even conceive being afraid of her. In spite of all her power, he could confidently say she wasn't dangerous. She'd spent more than a week trying to heal President Galthe before finally being forced to leave Balmorra. He didn't trust her, of course, but he found her predictable.

Which also meant he knew exactly how this would all go if the Jedi Master woke up to find that everybody she'd tried to save was dead.

"Wait," he said just before Thema opened the doors. The blind swordsman - Zenith was certain by now that he was - stopped and looked vaguely in Zenith's direction.

"Start killing people inside her shield, she'll panic. Heal everyone. Make you fight her and them."

He glanced down at the little Jedi, who was still mouthing the same words over and over again. Then he looked back up at Thema, whose face was hard to read with a mask covering everything above his mouth.

It only took two seconds for the man to ask, "what do you suggest?"

Zenith's face twisted in distaste. On the one hand, he was grateful Thema hadn't ignored him and gone out to commit wholesale slaughter, on the other, Embry Azeel was an idiot who was backing him into a corner with her power.

Just like that ghost had said. "When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, the lightest touch decides the balance."

Kill them anyway, Zenith thought. It was the obvious solution, the most sensible one, and it was exactly the sort of thing that would end the war properly.

But, between Caein Thema and Embry Azeel, he knew who he trusted more.

"Tell them to come here or die when the shield drops." When both Jedi looked ready to protest, Zenith snapped, "or fight the Barsen'thor's power. Your choice."

There was a flicker on Thema's face that Zenith interpreted as temptation, but the Jedi just said, "no time to argue," opened the door, and darted out.

For long, long moments, Zenith wasn't sure what the Jedi would decide. He wasn't even sure what he would have preferred.

Then the first Imperial ran through the door and Zenith actually relaxed slightly. The man looked terrified, wild-eyed and head snapping left and right to see everything inside the building at once. He was unarmed and, when Carsen raised her lightsaber to him, he raised his hands and, at her orders, sat down by the wall.

More trickled in, then a group of them, and more in a steady stream. Oddly, none of them were injured, and some looked at Zenith - or perhaps Embry - with emotions ranging from disgust to terror.

Eventually, when there were more than thirty men and women sitting opposite the door, one said, "I thought the Jedi holding up that shield was supposed to be here."

Neither Zenith nor Kira spoke.

"That's a load of bantha fodder and you know it," another one said. "No Sith could hold that off -" his words were interrupted as a one of the blasts that periodically made it through Embry's shield hit the ground and rocked the building. The man gulped. "... and no way a Jedi could, either," he finished with a semblance of confidence.

It had been minutes, long minutes, since the bombardment started, and the rumbling blasts were starting to come back, growing more and more frequent as the seconds passed.

"If you don't believe it," one of the others said, "why'd you even come?"

The skeptic rolled his eyes. "That freak Jedi cut my blaster in half and told me to get here or he'd kill me. Why did you?"

The others seemed to take that as rhetorical question, but Kira leapt on the man's words.

"That 'freak Jedi' decided not to get rid of the lot of you, and that's the Jedi Master saving you all from your own Moff, so how about some respect?"

An Imperial snorted. "Right. As if we'd believe that."

Another said, "I heard it was Caein Thema."

Murmurings started up, arguments about the bombing, about Caein Thema, and about the shield protecting them all.

Then Caein Thema returned, and all the Imperials went silent.

He ignored every single one of them and turned to his Padawan, who gave a mock salute and headed over to the doors further into the building.

The last few Imperials straggled in, just three of them, and Caein looked back over his shoulder.

"The barrier's shrinking," he reported, closing the building's entrance.

Kira opened the other doors and hurried back. "Alright," she said. "How's the Barsen'thor?"

Zenith assumed the question was for him, but all he could see was that Embry's eyes were closed and her mouth was moving slower, like she was struggling to even think about each new word.

"Still dying." Caein didn't even look Zenith's way, but he said, "you were right about her trying to heal the Imperials outside. It made it difficult to set examples, but there were enough injured that I could use them."

Zenith stared, parsing the words for a second, before realizing that the Jedi had killed wounded Imperials to simultaneously convince the other Imperials to head to safety and to keep Embry from wasting her power on healing the injured. It was efficient, and exactly what Zenith would have done in his position. So maybe it was the utterly offhand way he said it or the unnatural contrast with the little Barsen'thor's attitude that sent a shiver down Zenith's spine.

He was biased after the last month, but Jedi shouldn't kill so casually.

Either way, the twi'lek nodded and gave the silent Imperials a second glance.

Every single one of them had both eyes on Caein Thema.

One of them whispered something Zenith didn't quite catch, but he was pretty sure it included the word, "blademaster".

Caein walked past the huddled Imperials, giving orders all the while. "Zenith, stay close so I can protect you. Kira, bring up the rear, make sure the Imperials don't try anything. Everyone, follow me."

He made it a few steps past the group before stopping and turning around.

"And if anyone makes any move to escape, I will kill them."

Then he continued on as if he hadn't said anything.

The journey down into the facility was not uneventful. On the other hand, every event could be summarized the same way. A group of Imperials would get in their way. The droids would be destroyed. Other than the first pair of soldiers, the rest were disarmed and taken prisoner. Caein Thema had apparently misjudged how many people Embry was protecting with her power, through healing or her barrier.

At one point, as an aside, the swordsman told Zenith that they'd come deep enough that the ground was soaking up enough of the bombardment for Embry to start recovering. That, at least, was good news, and Caein seemed genuinely pleased about it.

By the time the Jedi Knight held out his arm in front of Zenith, they'd accumulated what must have been almost a hundred Imperial prisoners.

"Stop," he called out.

Everybody froze.

"Sith," Thema said by way of explanation. "Wait here."

Then he disappeared around the corner. There were a couple of blaster shots, the sound of lightsabers cutting through air, an aborted scream, and then silence.

"Alright," the Jedi called, "you can come out now." In softer tones, he said, "you will join the others or join these Sith."

Zenith turned the corner to see two Imperial soldiers cowering before Thema and two bodies, clearly Sith judging by their robes, on the ground several paces away from their heads.

Just beyond them was a door large enough to fit a building through.

The Imperial soldiers scurried towards Zenith and the horde of prisoners. Caein shot Zenith - or probably Embry - a mild glare, then knelt to pick over one of the Sith's pockets. In moments he had what he wanted, a keycard that he flashed in front of the blast door's access panel.

The doors slid open to reveal a single overweight Imperial officer surrounded by security turrets and flanked by two massive war droids standing in the center of a room that justified the size of the doors. The room beyond them was a familiar one, with ramps leading up to a second level straight out of the templates Zenith had studied in his time as a rebel.

"This is it," he told Thema. The twi'lek scanned the mezzanine. It was filled with computers, no doubt the ones they'd come to this world for, but the question was if there was anybody up there, a scientist perhaps, who was still hiding.

Before Zenith could say anything about risking damage to the equipment, Thema shot forward and sliced through a turret and the legs of one of the war droids. In another three seconds, the fight was over.

"General Ediker," whispered one of the door guards who was still passing Zenith to join the other prisoners. He sounded stunned. At this point, both Zenith and the other prisoners were simply numb to the accomplishment.

Thema stood over the general with his lightsaber at the man's throat. Then he stepped back, gestured casually at the prisoners, and holstered his lightsabers. As the general walked to join the throng, Caein Thema said to all of them, "this is almost over. Stay still or die."

Then he walked up the ramp towards the computers. Zenith took a glance at the cowed prisoners, then followed him.

"Jedi," Zenith called.

Thema stopped, frowning at Zenith as the twi'lek caught up.

"Aren't you- ah. That's kind of incredible, actually."

"What?" Zenith asked. Then he shook his head. "Never mind. She alright?"

The Jedi nodded and continued up the ramp, gesturing for Zenith to follow. "She's spent the last half hour putting up a more powerful barrier than I've seen in my life, or even heard of. The first ten minutes were spent actively fueling it." He gave Zenith what probably counted as a frank look. "She should be dead."

"That doesn't answer my question!"

"She's fine," Caein said, taken aback. "Just fine. I'm going to recommend she doesn't come along on the mission to the Maelstrom, but she's been holding steady since we got down here, except for when I killed those Sith. This far underground, I couldn't even say what her barrier is doing, besides maybe deadening the sound of the bombardment." He paused to think for a second or two. "Then again, the bombardment is probably digging a hole down to us, after this long. We should get out of here before that becomes an issue."

Zenith couldn't agree more, but there was an important question to be considered first.

"How are we going to do that?"

Caein's reply was interrupted by a human in scientist's robes storming up to them and crying, "Republic butchers! You've-"

He didn't get any further before Caein reached out a hand and lifted the man into the air. "It's blademaster, actually. Butcher Blademaster. You'll have heard of me."

Butcher what? Zenith blinked, but the scientist went white.

"I'm taking a lot more prisoners than usual today," the Jedi continued. "You could be one of them. Just tell me where the Gree computer is."

"You monster," the scientist spat.

He cut off when Thema ignited the lightsaber in his free hand. "I'll make it quick, if that helps. I always do."

The fight just went out of the scientist. He slumped in mid-air, raising a hand to point to one of the computers. Attached to it was a piece of tech clearly not of Republic or Imperial design.

As the Jedi walked over to collect the device, the scientist gave Zenith a hopeless look. "There are civilian ships using that computer," he said dully. "Hundreds of them, in the Maelstrom Nebula. They'll die without its coordinates. Please… at least let me warn them."

Zenith considered it. It wasn't as if the move would tip the Imperials off any more than stealing the Gree computer would. Even if the scientists were working for the Empire, it wasn't as if they were doing any damage charting a nebula in the middle of nowhere.

He'd rather have them arrested, one and all, but condemning them to death was more than he was willing to commit to, on that scale.

He nodded. "Do-"

"No."

Caein walked back with the gree artifact in his hand. With the other, he pointed to the group of prisoners below the mezzanine. "Go," he told the scientist.

The scientist stood his ground and Caein simply sighed, walked up to the scientist, and picked him up again. Then he called, "Kira, catch!"

Without any more warning, he threw the man from the platform. There were cries of alarm from below, but the lack of a bone-crushing crash told Zenith the man hadn't hit the ground.

"Now," Caein said, as if he hadn't just condemned hundreds of people to death, "where was I?"

Zenith scowled, unsure of what the man even meant.

"Right," the Jedi said, snapping his fingers. "The way out. There's a ship on the upper floors in an underground hangar. I can't see it past the Barsen'thor's barriers, but it should still be intact."

"Good escape route," Zenith agreed cautiously. "What makes you think it hasn't been taken?"

Caein shrugged nonchalantly and started leading the way back down the ramp. "We took everyone prisoner on the way here. The best part is, with Master Azeel's powers, we should be able to make it away safely."

Zenith looked down at the crowd of Imperials and Kira Carsen, who was checking the ruffled scientist for injuries. "Can't imagine there's a shuttle big enough for that many."

"Not a chance," Caein agreed cheerily. "Probably only room for ten. Twenty, if we squeeze in."

He gave a satisfied grin, like he'd just solved a particularly challenging riddle. "It should be a comfortable ride home."


	3. The Prison and Loss

Master Embry Azeel, Barsen'thor of the Jedi Order, was an ache. Her head ached, her toes ached, her teeth ached. The Force inside her ached. She was one hundred fifty-five centimeters, forty-two kilograms, seventeen years of ache.

That wasn't the reason for her misery, however.

She'd saved nobody from Taral V. There'd been… she couldn't focus well enough to remember how many there'd been under her barrier. Only the four of them had made it out. Everybody else was dead.

"There is death, yet the Force," she whispered to herself.

T7 beeped inquisitively and Embry patted him lightly. Maybe he couldn't feel it, but he was being kind enough to help her through the Telos' corridors, so he must understand her feelings somewhat.

"It just means that people die, things die, but they join the Force and the Force is life. There will always be life, no matter how much death there is." She smiled down at the little droid. "Thank you for guiding me, Tee-seven."

He whistled and carried along at a pace she could keep up with while she pushed her body forward one step at a time.

The bridge wasn't far now, and maybe after she helped with whatever Oteg had called her for, he would answer some of her questions.

More than a hundred people were dead and nobody would tell her why. Not Caein Thema, not Kira Carsen, and not even a word from Zenith, who was being more silent and grim than usual.

She'd never even gotten the chance to save Captain Shivanek and Ripper. She could only hope they'd been far enough from the bombardment area to be safe.

Seeing her struggle, one of the soldiers, a short twi'lek man with a kind face, came up beside her and offered his help. She took his arm gratefully and they made it to the bridge together, the three of them. Then she waved goodbye to the man, Private Darr'eb, and entered the bridge.

She didn't stumble, but she had to blink her eyes as stepped into the bridge. The lights were the same as the rest of the ship, but the forward viewing port was filled with the incredible gold, azure, and pink of the Maelstrom Nebula all around them. When her eyes cleared, she saw a room filled with people of all shapes and sizes. Most were sitting in chairs at terminals, calling out names and numbers and orders. Others were dashing in and out of the room. One, near the great window at the far side of the room, was barking orders to one person after another. His face was red and he trailed off and knelt down every few seconds.

There, coming up to the loud man's knees, was Oteg. Beside them both were Knight Thema, Padawan Carsen, and Zenith.

T7 led her across the crowded room and Zenith met her halfway. He gave her a look up or down that she met with a steady one of her own.

Embry knew she was weak. Maybe weaker than she'd been since helping to cure the Dark Plague. She could accept Zenith's sympathy for that, even his pity, but if he suggested she stay out of the rescue mission, she would have a few words to say. Especially after so many had died on Taral V.

Zenith caught the look and, strangely, cast a look back at Oteg and the others. She didn't see his expression, but there was something in his eyes when he looked back at her. The same look she always saw from the people who were in danger and needed healing or protection.

That was the opposite of what she'd been expecting from the freedom fighter.

He walked with her the rest of the way, though he didn't take her arm. He only kept watch, glaring at anybody who came close as they crossed the bridge at the best pace Embry could handle.

They stepped onto the relative peace of the dais and Oteg stepped forward, smiling.

"It's good to see you, Barsen'thor." Then his smile faltered. "Are you..."

Embry raised a hand and the older master cut off. "Thank you for your concern, Oteg. I will be ready for the rescue mission."

Knight Thema stepped forward, somehow glaring even through his mask. "With all due respect, Master Azeel, that's not true. Please, my Padawan and I have taken on worse than this together. You're badly injured. I've never seen anybody wield as much power as you did, and you need rest. You tore out chunks of your own Living Force."

Embry gave the man a raised eyebrow. "Knight," she said firmly, and emphasized the rank, "while I'm sure I have no idea what you mean, trust me when I say I know my limits. I have not reached them yet."

"And will you reach them during our mission?" His tone was caustic. Then he stepped back and bowed slightly. "I am sorry, Master. That was disrespectful of me."

T7 crooned softly and nudged Embry very gently, though she still leaned against him.

She smiled softly and sighed. It had been a disrespectful comment, but it had been disrespect born of concern. Embry could understand that, at least.

"There is passion," she said quietly, taking Knight Thema's hand in both of hers, "yet there is also serenity. Care if you must, Knight Thema, I appreciate it, but you must also trust me, as I trust you."

She looked up at him and gave him a smile, warm even through her pain. His expression shifted again, going through yet another unreadable flurry, before his mouth set in a grim, neutral line, and he nodded.

"Thank you," he said, then looked to Oteg. "How close are we to the center of the maelstrom?"

Oteg, rather than answer, looked up at the red-faced human who'd spent all the time Embry had seen him yelling at the rest of the bridge.

The man, whose name Embry wasn't sure of, took the look as orders to yell some more, this time about the fleet's speed and the Maelstrom's size, and in another few seconds Oteg was nodding and smiling.

"Not far now," he said happily.

Zenith started to step forward, then, unexpectedly, stepped back without saying anything at all. Embry gave him a look, but he only stood silently, looking grim.

What had gotten into him?

Maybe it had something to do with all the people dead on Taral V. If so, she hoped the change was a good thing. That way, at least something good would have come out of all that.

"So who're we rescuing?" asked Padawan Carsen.

Eyes turned to her, then to Oteg. It didn't exactly matter to Embry, at least she wouldn't refuse to help no matter who it was, but she was curious.

However, Oteg looked troubled. He looked around, murmured to the yelling man, and then beckoned them all towards the window. His face flashed from one colour to the other as the Maelstrom flickered around them, but his expression never lost its newfound, uncharacteristic seriousness.

Embry glanced back to see everyone on the bridge moving off the front dais, out of earshot, even Oteg's second in command.

"That is an answer I've been keeping quiet," Oteg said, drawing Embry's attention back to him. He looked up at them with an uncharacteristically grim expression. "If there is one thing we can't afford on this mission… especially after losing so many at Taral V… it's the Empire finding out exactly how much we know."

It took Embry a moment to realize Oteg was talking about the ships in his fleet, not the soldiers on the ground. There'd been many fighters and even a cruiser lost in the battle with Grand Moff Kilran's fleet. Almost thirty dead and over a hundred casualties.

Embry reminded herself that she hadn't even had the chance to save them. All she could do was wish the Force be with Oteg's forces next time.

"So far, the only ones who know are myself and our friend, but I won't send you in unprepared." Oteg beckoned them to lean forward, which they did, even Zenith. "According to what the Republic knows, the Maelstrom prison is an impregnable fortress housing the Emperor's personal prisoners, no more than thirty at most."

The Jedi waved his hand to forestall questions. "Nothing more than a lie leaked to us by the Empire. There's only one prisoner on the Maelstrom prison. With apologies, Master Azeel, but her identity is the reason you were brought on this mission. If it weren't for your unique knowledge, I would insist you stay on the ship."

Embry frowned. She wasn't sure Oteg had that authority, but she didn't want to risk it. Instead, she asked carefully, "what unique knowledge?"

"Why," Oteg said conspiratorially, a hint of his usual smile returning, "you are the only Jedi in decades to speak to the Noetikon of Secrets. Your conversations with Bastila Shan are the reason I called you for this mission."

Embry raised an eyebrow. Then, as realization hit her, the other one rose, too.

Oteg nodded. "The one prisoner held in the Maelstrom prison for the last three hundred years is the Jedi, Revan."

Embry meant to trade a surprised look with Zenith, but he just stared at her blankly.

Knight Thema, however, responded in a more predictable way.

"That can't be. She's been dead for hundreds of years."

Padawan Carsen whispered, "Revan? The Prodigal Knight Revan? Seriously?"

Her master shot her an exasperated look while Zenith looked between all of them, baffled.

Embry almost explained, but she wasn't sure what to say. Revan had been…

She thought back to the stories Bastila's Noetikon had told her. A lot of stories, and all clear on one thing: Revan was not easily defined by anyone.

To Zenith, all she could say was, "she was a good person who deserves to be rescued."

Where Zenith would normally have scoffed at that, perhaps said she would say that about anyone, or perhaps simply given a quiet and derisive grunt, today he didn't. He only gave a small, accepting nod.

That was good enough for Embry, and she was grateful for it. While Thema and Carsen asked more questions, the Barsen'thor had all she needed. Everything she'd told Zenith was true. She was satisfied with that much.

* * *

Embry tried to relax as the shuttle rocked. T7 rattled in his clamps and Padawan Carsen held onto her straps. The shuttle had been launched from the Telos as soon as it had entered the eye of the Maelstrom and was using all its power just to slow down before it reached the prison.

Zenith held his gun with a look that managed to look even more grim than when he was trying to be unfriendly. Padawan Carsen had none of the energy that she'd had before their first mission; she didn't remind Embry of her sister anymore.

"Kira!" Knight Thema yelled from the front. "Get up here, and hurry."

The ship rocked as Kira undid her straps, nearly sending her crashing into the opposite wall. She recovered, stepped off of T7's chassis with a quick apology, and launched herself towards the cockpit door. She was through it so fast the sound of the door slamming shut coincided with the echo of it bursting open.

When Knight Thema asked somebody to hurry, it was apparently no joke.

Embry almost got up to help, too, but T7 looked at her and whistled a warning sort of sound, shaking his head.

It was somehow harder to argue with the little droid than with any of the others on the shuttle. There was a sense about him that he'd seen more than he could tell.

So she sat in silence with Zenith. Silence, except for the rattling ship and the single explosion that resounded through the hull, rocking T7 in his clamps and slamming Zenith's head against his seat. Almost absentmindedly, Embry reached out a hand to heal him.

He caught her with a glare and she smiled, putting one hand on his shoulder.

Whether he didn't like to be touched or wanted her to save her strength, he was wrong in his thinking. She wouldn't let him be in pain if she could help it and it didn't take her any real effort to heal someone. It was only a bruise.

Zenith looked away when she touched him, glaring resolutely across the shuttle. Silent.

That wasn't right. Zenith was taciturn and gruff, but this silence was different. There was a palpable unease to it. Zenith didn't get uneasy. He saw a problem and dealt with it, usually in the easiest way he could.

Embry didn't like Zenith's "easy way", but it was less unsettling than this.

From the front, Caein Thema called, "brace yourselves!"

Then the ship started bucking hard. A second later, the pair were slammed sideways, as if the ship had just hit something. Even after that, they were being pulled to the ship's front. Something was dragging on the ship itself, slowing it down faster than the inertial compensators could handle.

Then Zenith looked at her. Worried. That same look of needing to be saved.

Embry reached out with her senses and felt the power holding the ship back. It was Padawan Carsen, dragging on the ship as best she could, trying to slow it down. Embry could imagine why. They'd launched at the prison so fast she'd wondered how they were going to keep from crashing. This was her answer.

The little Jedi expanded her senses as best she could, not into space, but through time. Just a moment into the future, waiting, ready for the moment she was needed.

To Zenith, she said over the crashing noise, "all will be well."

He nodded.

They crashed.

Embry only had the strength for a moment of effort, but she did everything she could to lessen the impact, wrapping everybody in the ship in a barrier for the instant the shuttle hit the inside of the prison's hangar.

The next seconds were chaos of noise and motion, but as soon as it settled Embry was on her feet.

Then she was on her knees again, stumbling on weakened legs until she'd fallen against T7.

"Jedi-"

"I'm alright," Embry said quickly, pushing herself to her feet with a little help from T7. "We should…"

She trailed off as the Force within the prison washed over her.

"... do you feel that?" she asked. For the first time in almost a month, her hand went to her lightsaber.

Zenith nodded, eyes drawn to her hand. She followed his gaze, too, and drew the weapon. "Be careful," she said softly.

Zenith grunted and nodded towards the back of the shuttle. "Just crashed. Should hit the LZ while they're off balance."

Embry wasn't certain what the acronym meant, but T7 unclamped himself and led the way to the exit ramp. He accessed the controls and the ramp started to lower with a whine. Then it ground to a halt.

Thema and Carsen came up beside them, the Padawan looking exhausted and both of them clearly a having been tossed around earlier.

"I have it," the Knight said, and leapt into the air. He planted his hands against the roof, his legs came forward, and with a mighty heave, the ramp slammed open, revealing Imperial guards and war droids swarming into the room.

Chaos ensued. Blaster fire came at them and both Padawan and Knight took the front, serving as blazing shields as the entire group advanced. They had Embry's gratitude. It was all she could do to shield them, she wasn't sure how much actual blaster fire her powers could handle.

She needed to change tactics.

Embry lit her own lightsaber. It shone bright green, a grassy colour that matched her skin. A colour of life she often admired.

Zenith turned to look at her, wide-eyed. He'd never seen her activate it. "What-"

Embry charged. It was nothing fast, but when the other two Jedi landed amongst the groups of prison guards, she was there with them.

Her lightsaber sheared through the first soldier's gun before he could step back.

"Their weapons!" It wasn't so difficult to yell over the sound of blasters. She just had to ignore her aching chest. "Thema! The blasters!"

A blaster bolt hit the soldier beside her and she instinctively reached out a hand.

The man was alive. Not happy, of course, after taking a blaster bolt to the knee, but alive. Embry cut through his blaster, too, then moved on, only sparing a look to see that Padawan Carsen was doing as she should. Knight Thema was moving too fast to spend the time looking for him.

Embry stumbled, almost cutting a woman's hand off in the next step. This was becoming very difficult. Where was-

"Sith!"

Zenith's voice came barely a second before Knight Thema's warcry split the hangar. Lights flashed green and blue through the air over Embry's head and the yelling continued, matched by a strained, raspy woman's voice.

The woman cut off abruptly.

Embry hissed sharply and reached out a hand to push people out of her way, but that wasn't an option. Even if they'd all been droids and safe to throw, she didn't have the strength to use power like that right now. She was barely holding her barriers up and swinging a lightsaber at the same time.

Not that she'd admit that to anyone watching.

"Master Azeel!"

Three Imperials fell in pieces in front of her and revealed Knight Thema stalking towards her.

"What are you doing?" he snapped, and his lightsabers flitted out to either side, killing two more. "You can barely hold your barriers up and swing your lightsaber at the same time-"

He stopped as his lightsaber hit hers, centimeters from an Imperial soldier's face.

Embry opened her mouth to reprimand the Knight.

Then the Imperial ducked under both lightsabers, raised his blaster, and tried to shoot her in the face.

The bolts didn't hurt her, but Embry stumbled back and her lightsaber came down. It was Caein Thema who killed the soldier,slicing through the man's shoulder and down to his heart, but Embry's lightsaber did its own damage to the man.

She stared as he fell to the ground. Then she looked around.

The man and woman she'd disarmed and the ones Zenith had shot were still fighting, most charging towards Zenith and a couple charging at Padawan Carsen's back.

"What's happening?" she asked, feeling it was a completely inadequate question.

Knight Thema, however, understood her perfectly.

"There's a power here," he yelled over the noise of blasterfire and screaming soldiers. "It's everywhere, and I can't tell if it's coming from the people or soaking into them."

Then he leapt across the room, killed the injured berserkers, and returned in so little time that the conversation barely lulled.

"If you're planning on saving the soldiers here, too, I'd say you're too late."

Embry ground her teeth. She'd pieced together that Knight Thema was blind and couldn't see any reason for him to lie about what he sensed through the Force, but she wouldn't accept more of this attitude. Especially not after what had happened on Taral V. People had died, hundreds had died, and even Zenith had been hit hard. To see that Knight Thema was willing to kill even more hurt.

"Knight Thema," she said, "you are more than strong enough to stop these people without killing them. Do so."

And, she wouldn't admit, she wasn't. She was already moving more slowly than she had when the fight started, and she'd barely been faster than any non-Force-Sensitive then.

Knight Thema gave a single, sharp nod, then darted off.

Zenith came to her side a moment later, rifle up but not firing. When he reached her, Embry leaned into his side for support. It was something she wouldn't have had to think about with Qyzen, something she'd had to do seemingly constantly only months ago. Now she was just as weak and there was only Zenith there for her.

No, that wasn't a fair thing to thing. Despite what he said, how he acted, he was there for her now, supporting her weight and, by not firing on their wounded enemies, her actions.

"Thank you, Zenith," she said, maybe too softly for him to hear. He shifted his grip to hold his rifle in one hand and her shoulder in the other.

"Jedi," he growled, "what's wrong with you?"

"All will be well," Embry managed, "but please don't let go."

A four-legged war droid charged them and crashed to a halt, sparking, as T7 fired a dart into its chassis. The rest of the battle went similarly, and it couldn't truly be said that the rescue team was ever in any danger. The only complication was Embry's orders.

When the fight was over, many of the Imperial soldiers were missing limbs, or at least fingers. They'd proven difficult to knock unconscious and still struggled after they were tied up. Embry set about solving that as best she could.

As soon as Zenith and T7 had finished rounding up and restraining each of the guards, Embry moved amongst them, kneeling and putting them to sleep, one by one by one.

"That's… surprisingly delicate," Knight Thema commented, talking over the lullaby Embry was humming.

Embry nodded and the eyelids of the soldier she was humming to drifted closed. With Zenith's help, she got halfway to her feet and moved to the next soldier over. This one, too, was watching her with unthinking rage. She brushed her hand lightly over his eyelids and began to hum again.

It was, she admitted, taking longer than it needed to. She just didn't have the strength to ease the entire… squad? Platoon? Not all at once. Almost all thirty soldiers, still alive, would be too draining for her right now.

Embry had learned that months ago. She'd learned a lot of her limits months ago. She hadn't lied to Knight Thema; she wasn't at the end of her endurance yet.

But even after those hard lessons, learning to control her power when she had none left to spare, she hadn't expected this. As she stood up from the last Imperial soldier, she felt just a little reinvigorated. She almost managed to stand under her own power. It was like she'd been given the chance to rest alongside the unconscious soldiers.

"Five minutes," Zenith growled, holding her shoulder tightly. "The entire prison is going to be ready for us now."

Embry looked up into the man's eyes. He glared back at her, but it wasn't the same glare as he'd always given her before. She could have argued, always had done so before. This time, though, she only smiled.

"All will be well, Zenith. You'll see."

T7 gave an appreciative, crooning hum.

"Barsen'thor," Knight Thema interjected. His padawan muttered something too quietly to hear, which he ignored. "I'm trying to make sense of what I've seen from you recently, and I have some questions."

Embry smile faltered and she turned towards Knight Thema. She knew what questions he was going to ask, about her priorities, about who she chose to save. Even other Jedi often wondered about it. Holiday understood, or tried to. Qyzen was used to it. Everybody else just seemed baffled by everything she did.

Thema stood facing the hangar entrance, lightsabers drawn, but kept talking as soon as she was looking at him.

"I've seen you expend more energy than I've ever seen in one place on a technique that I'll admit was impressive, but shouldn't have taken half as much power. Barely minutes later, you topped that by holding off an orbital bombardment for almost half an hour, and it nearly killed you. It should have killed you, should have killed ten Jedi Masters." Though he still faced the door, the knight licked his lips and shook his head. "You're in more delicate shape than you'll admit. Those barriers you put up were killing you."

He turned his head to look back at her, though his stance was still ready to fight. "So how do you manage a technique so precise I can't properly see it, without any trouble at all? You might as well have been meditating peacefully."

Embry blinked. Twice. That wasn't the question she'd been expecting at all.

"It's not like that," Embry said dismissively. "It's nothing so difficult."

Embry looked back at the prisoners, then started towards the hangar door with Zenith and T7 at her side.

"Makes sense to me," Zenith said. "It can't take much power to put a man to sleep."

T7 made a high-pitched whistle, followed by a warbling series of beeps.

The swordsman nodded and moved to take up a position on one side of the group while Padawan Carsen moved to the other side. "Like Tee-Seven says. The Force doesn't work that way. Imagine watching a medic be burned by a flamethrower. Imagine he held it off by holding his arms out to be burned up first. Then imagine he turned around and performed surgery. Without droid assistance."

He actually turned to look at Zenith sternly. "It's not about strength," he said. "It's about the fact that work that delicate isn't… it shouldn't be possible in the shape the Barsen'thor is in."

Thema gave a look at Embry, then turned back to face forward. The group moved through corridor after suspiciously empty corridor in that way.

She knew what that look meant. He was thinking, as he had before, that she shouldn't be here.

"You're wrong, Knight Thema." She tried not to breath hard at the pace they were keeping. It wasn't fast by any normal standards, but she was so exhausted, even after five minutes of break. "The Force isn't anything like hands. It has a will, a purpose and a flow. Healing comes naturally. Sometimes I think it's easier than breathing."

T7 whistled again, and this time it was Padawan Carsen who responded. She raised an eyebrow at Embry and asked, "what's he mean, an affinity?"

Embry smiled and leaned into Zenith, trying to lessen the effort exhausting her with every long corridor. "It's what the instructors at the temple always called it. Somehow I'm not surprised T7 knows about that kind of thing. It just means I heal more easily than anything else."

Zenith gave a sort of affirmative grunt, which she took as positive.

Caein Thema nodded.

Then a voice sounded in all their minds.

"The Scarred Man followed you."

Embry didn't look around. The voice was the ghost's. This time, at least, he hadn't spoken in riddle.

They all traded looks.

"We should hurry," Knight Thema said. He turned to face Embry. "I have to ask, Master Azeel. Don't use your barriers on Kira or me from here on out."

Embry frowned. Thema hurried to explain.

"We can protect ourselves well enough to wait for healing. Stay behind us, let us do the work, patch us up between skirmishes. With all due respect, I don't have the authority to order you back to the ship, or I would. Since I can't, please stay behind us and do what you do best."

Embry looked to Zenith, expecting him to say something, but the freedom fighter's jaw was clenched tightly shut. He didn't look at the other two Jedi. He… specifically didn't look at either of them, and Embry felt his unease faintly, even through the darkness that pressed in on them all.

"That is acceptable," she conceded, "but-"

"Mercy is the Jedi's defense," said the ghost's voice, this time interrupting her.

Again, a moment of uncertainty.

Caein Thema gave a derisive smirk. "Did you all hear the same thing I did?"

Kira Carsen gave a soft snort. "Pretty sure I did. It sounds like the sort of advice the Exile would give."

"It does," Embry agreed. "He understood that the Force is powerful because it is made of life and love. It is a force for protection, not for destruction, no matter how it might be used."

She looked the Padawan in the eyes, making sure the lesson got through. "When this war is over, I hope the Jedi remember that. Today, Revan's friend, no matter who he is, has made sure we all do."

She expected Zenith to chime in, to disagree and even laugh at her, but again he was uncharacteristically silent. Taciturn he might be, but he'd never before passed up the chance to argue against mercy for the Empire.

The lights in the station flickered and dimmed, then Grand Moff Rycus Kilran appeared, three meters tall and repeating up and down the corridor.

"What-" Knight Thema started. T7 stopped halfway to the nearest terminal and turned his head to look up at the blue-tinged figure.

"Blademaster." The hologram's voice boomed throughout the station loudly enough that Embry could feel it through her feet. "Embry Azeel. I did some reading up on you. Not much, of course, since you'll be dead by the end of the day, but you should know a few Darths will be thanking me personally to deliver your corpse to them. I suppose they'll have to share."

"You again!?" blurted the Padawan.

"Yes," Kilran purred. "I arrived before you… bided my time in the nebula. Oteg spread his forces too thin. It will cost him his life. And yours. Darth Malgus will be most pleased."

Zenith snorted. "He'd better have one hell of a guard force. My credits say this prison's too valuable to bomb to slag."

"I do," Kilran's image replied. A low drumbeat started building in the distance. The scarred man smiled. "Scurry about our prison, Jedi. After I've wiped out your fleet, I'll find you."

The image winked out, leaving the sound of marching feet the only one in the corridor. A squad of Imperials marched around the corner. It was followed by another squad, and another, in the span of seconds.

T7 let out a wail and sped towards the terminal as every oncoming soldier raised a blaster rifle.

"Cae!" Kira yelled. "A little warning would have been nice!"

Caein Thema yelled something inarticulate in response and ran forwards.

The hallway flickered with blue light again, filling with images of Oteg.

The air filled with blaster fire and Embry tried to put herself in front of Zenith. He snorted and pushed her back, sheltering her smaller body without even trying. It abruptly became impossible to see anything down the corridor as a wall of green and blue light appeared in front of the Knight standing between them and an Imperial army.

"-got it." Oteg's figure said. Then, without preamble, he said, "the Jedi prisoner must be freed, even if it means losing the fleet."

T7 whistled something lost in the sound of blasterfire.

"I can't-" Knight Thema cut off as three battle droids came around the corner and his padawan swore. Then three more droids followed those. "Get back!"

"As long as we're between you and Kilran, you're protected."

Kira Carsen had already stepped back, eyes wide. Caein Thema was backing up steadily. Without turning, he yelled, "T7!"

The droid whistled something loud and abrupt.

"Get back!" Knight Thema yelled. Then as Embry started to create a barrier for him, he snarled, "don't you dare!"

"Caein Thema? What's going on in there?"

The padawan turned, grabbed Zenith and Embry's shoulders, and ran with both of them back the way they'd come.

Embry's mind raced. How far had they come? Why were there so many guards in this prison? Could they make it back to the hangar? Was there a way around? Could they still save the Jedi prisoner?

She stumbled, heard Zenith growl, "oh, for-", then Embry squawked indignantly as the man picked her up and started charging back down the hall.

From her perch, Embry yelled, "Oteg, get out! We'll be alright!"

She hoped she wasn't lying. If Oteg could see them, there was no way he'd believe her.

A blaster bolt hit the wall beside her. Then a couple more, and a few after that. Padawan Carsen glanced back, wide-eyed, and murmured, "holy hells, he's slowing down." Then the girl picked up the pace, forcing Zenith to run uncomfortably quickly to keep up. Embry bounced in an undignified way against his shoulder.

Oteg nodded. "We'll make a tactical withdrawal. Divide their forces. Good luck."

His image winked out.

Then the doors crashed closed, echoing down the corridor and deadening the sound of blasterfire. Embry saw Knight Thema's shoulders sag and he started to fall before Zenith turned around and turned her away. Behind her, T7 gave a crooning warble. Beside her, Kira Carsen froze, eyes wide. Then she dashed forward with a bark of, "get moving!"

She must have pointed, because Zenith started moving, still with Embry on his shoulder.

They made around a bend in the corridor before the gruff man put her down and steadied her gently. He looked her in one eye, then the other.

"You alright, Jedi?"

The little Jedi smiled, putting a hand up to her shoulder to rest atop his. She squeezed his fingers gently and nodded.

"I'll be just fine, Zenith," she answered. "Thank-"

She was cut off by the appearance of T7 zipping around the corner, followed quickly by his own pair of Jedi.

As soon as they were around the corner, Kira Carsen glared at them both. "Don't stop!" she cried, exasperated. Then, "Cae, which way?"

Knight Thema shook his head. "I don't know. I can't see anything in this fog. Before the army showed up, I had a little, but it's like there's darkness coming out of them. I can't tell where anything is right now. At least, I can't tell without…" He looked to T7. "You got a map in there, Tee-Seven?"

T7 gave a whistle that must have been affirmative, because Caein Thema smiled. "Good. We need to get… that way, as fast as possible."

T7 gave a whirr and a pop. His owner chuckled. "Yes, that's why we were going that way. How about a detour?"

Another set of whistles, and this time the pair of Jedi exchanged glances. Thema looked to Embry and, almost nervously, asked, "Master Azeel… do you mind if we borrow your lightsaber for a minute?"

Embry raised an eyebrow, but took out her lightsaber and hefted it.

"Jedi," Zenith murmured in a warning tone, hand out as if to stop her.

Unexpected by both of them, however, it was T7 who came forward to claim the blade. He beeped something that sounded like a thank-you and then trundled back towards the wall. He faced the wall, holding the blade in a tiny claw, and Padawan Carsen leaned down to flick the device on.

Moments later, with some instructions from T7, Caein Thema and Kira Carsen had two lightsabers each and were carving a hole in the wall.

"T7 thinks it's the best way to keep the whole army from following us easily," the Knight explained as he worked. "And it will save us some time navigating towards Revan. Well, I hope it's Revan."

"You hope?" his Padawan asked skeptically.

"One ray of light in all this darkness that isn't the Barsen'thor herself," said the Knight. "I'm going with what feels right."

Embry could understand that. The Force was there to guide them. Following his instincts was exactly what a Jedi should be doing in this situation.

"By the way," the man continued conversationally as the wall melted, "Barsen'thor. There's something I've been meaning to mention. You can call us Caein and Kira if you want. Nobody calls me Knight, and you've lent T7 your lightsaber. I do have a question, though."

Embry nodded slightly, waiting for Knight… for Caein to continue. Caein, despite facing the wall, saw her motion and continued as expected.

"Why did you send the fleet away? We're going to get blown out of the stars unless we get to Revan and out before Kilran gets bored chasing them down."

Kira gave part of the answer first, commenting almost before Caein had finished speaking. As their blades passed the halfway mark, moving quickly to meet T7's, she said, "Kilran's got a grudge, Cae. He'll come to the station for us. It's after you kill him that we'll be in trouble."

The heat of the metal was starting to scorch the air, but it was almost done.

"You will not kill Moff Kilran." Embry stepped forward and her legs, thankfully, took her weight. "Nor anyone you can keep from killing on this station. Taral V was a tragedy I don't plan to repeat."

The pair exchanged another glance. Zenith's hand, which had come to rest on Embry's shoulder at some point, tightened its grip slightly.

Caein spoke first.

"I doubt I'll be killing anyone very easily for a while. I'm exhausted after-"

There was a rumbling of metal, then the steady drum of marching feet.

The Knight shut up and focused on finishing their makeshift door.

The marching got louder.

T7 gave a loud whistle and, all at once, the trio pulled back from the melted silhouette on the wall. Caein yelled and slammed a kick into the solid center of the door. There was a strange grinding, squelching sound, but the door only moved partway through the wall.

Kira gave Caein an incredulous look. Then the Padawan stepped forward into her own kick against the wall. This time, the metal crashed through, dripping glowing metal that Kira barely avoided. She stepped back and T7 moved forward next, spraying a grey mist into the hole. The mist hissed for a second, then coated the walls as the red-hot metal went dark.

As the drumbeat became worryingly loud, T7 sped through, followed by Kira, then Caein. Zenith and Embry had a brief, silent argument before the man went ahead first and Embry went through last, ready to bring up a barrier if it was needed.

She cast one last look back into the corridor and saw the first line of soldiers before pulling back and joining the rest of the group.

"They're here."

Caein nodded and looked down at T7, who darted off, leading the way.

They made it to the end of the next corridor before they heard people coming through the hole in the wall. After that, it seemed every corridor was lined with turrets, and the corridors only got wider as they went in. At first, they were large enough to move a truck through, but soon they reached areas big enough to land a freighter. It was as extraordinary as it was extravagant. The entire way, they were chased into more defenses.

Zenith and T7 proved to be a perfect team, one spotting traps, turrets, and terminals for the other to use, keeping them one step ahead of the army in corridor after corridor. They worked in a scouting pattern, with T7 opening a door so the group could get through, then Zenith would run ahead and see what dangers there were for T7 to handle electronically.

Kira helped them several times, especially with a pair of turrets that took Zenith by surprise, but Caein and Embry held back, exhausted. Caein was helping Embry move quickly enough to keep up, but he'd been moving slowly and barely caught her last time she'd stumbled.

Both he and Embry were slowing the others down.

Embry took a calming breath. She was needed. The Force would not have guided her here if she weren't.

She thought of Revan, somehow trapped for three hundred years, and her doubt faded.

They would succeed here.

The doors into the next chamber opened ponderously. The blasters in the next room, the next vast chamber, turned towards them.

T7 gave a triumphant whistle and the machines ground to a halt, slumping in place as they deactivated.

The drumbeat of footsteps came echoing from behind them.

They'd run out of the time bought by their shortcut.

The lights in the room dimmed and Kilran appeared, even larger than last time. There were five of him spaced evenly all the way to the next door, which dwarfed even his enormous hologram.

The four of them started forward. There wasn't another option.

Kilran looked over their heads with an unseeing expression of disgust on his face.

"Oteg lives to fight another day," he said, almost bored. "Through cowardice, of course. Now, you're all alone."

He gave a vicious smile while T7 started working on opening the next door.

"And against worse than an army, too. You attract the attention of dangerous enemies, Jedi." He laughed. "Perhaps I'll forgo my usual trophies for front row seats."

With a grim chuckle, the image winked out and the lights flickered on. Then they flickered off again, and red emergency lights came on.

"What was-"

Kira cut off as Caein rocked and stumbled. She caught him, then froze as he said, "we're in trouble."

Kira gave a nervous giggle. "You mean there's trouble coming, right? Cuz we know that, Cae."

Caein shook his head and pulled himself to his feet. "The dark fog's gone."

Embry felt it, too. From the colour of Kira's face, so did she.

Though the darkness was gone, Embry found herself very grateful when the doors to the next chamber opened.

"That's a good thing, right?" Kira asked, her voice weakly hopeful.

He shook his head. "So is the light."

There was a second's silence before Embry asked the obvious question.

"Where did the darkness go?"

Caein nodded and looked back to where the sound of the army had suddenly died down. "We're in trouble," he repeated.

The door behind them slid open with a thunderous rumble, revealing dozens of towering war droids, each scuttling forward on its four powerful legs. The soldiers who had accompanied them were gone. Maybe along with every guard on the station.

"We have to deal with those."

It was Zenith who said it. Everybody looked at him, then at the massive droids coming quickly into range. Zenith only pulled out his rifle, aimed, and fired. His shot clipped a droid's leg at the joint and the machine slowed, limping and falling behind its companions.

He nodded and pulled three explosives from his backpack. "Ion. How far can Jedi throw?"

There was a moment of silence, then Kira said, "give them here. Cae's spent and it doesn't look like Master Azeel here could throw three meters right now."

Neither Caein nor Embry argued. The Padawan wasn't wrong.

"Take T7 with you," Kira said, taking one of Zenith's grenades and hefting it speculatively. "I don't want him near these grenades, anyway. Get Revan and get out if you have to."

Zenith caught Embry's eye. Actually looked her in the eye for the first time since they'd ever met. He nodded. It was quiet and efficient, very much the kind of thing he always did. Except this time she was leaving him to fight an army of droids with nothing but a few blaster, a few ion grenades, and a Jedi Padawan to help him.

She nodded in return.

"Force be with you," she said, and turned to join Caein and T7.

Kira turned back and threw the first ion detonator. Embry managed to resist the urge to watch, instead letting Caein pull her along as they made the run to the next door. Blaster bolts started flying past before they were halfway across the room, and Embry wrapped an extra layer of protection over Zenith, giving him what clarity she could so that his aim would be true.

Then they reached the doors and T7 got to his work.

"Barsen'thor," Caein warned, "there's a servant of the Emperor on the other side of this door. We might have a chance to save her, but if things go wrong, you have to be prepared."

Embry spared him a glance. No blaster bolts came close to them, not at this distance, but she still kept one eye on their friends. One room away. So close, but she wasn't sure she could help them if they got in trouble even now.

They were so close to victory, so close to their friends, and for the next few seconds they wouldn't be able to help either.

"You know where the darkness went," Embry realized.

It made sense. What else would Kilran be so amused by? Why else would anyone give up their army, except to prevent the Jedi from possibly succeeding.

Caein nodded. "It's something I've seen before," he explained. "I won't say where. Just remember, we can save her if we're careful."

Embry smiled.

The door ground slowly open.

On the other side of the door was the largest room yet. The nearest semicircular platform and every other one in the room had at least two twenty meter statues of robed Sith Lords. From the platform extended a series of walkways, arched and ornate with the Imperial emblem at their keystones, that met in a T. There were two other platforms, to the left and right, both connected to the central one by their own walkways, both hosting doors at least as large as the one Embry and Caein were entering by.

It was the central platform that beggared the imagination, however. It lacked the colossal statues of the other platforms, but it made up for it by being the room's centerpiece. Each walkway led to it and two unspeakably large pyramids built towards it from above and below, ending at claws grasping for the center of the platform itself. Surrounding the sparking claws were computer terminals, enough to monitor an entire fleet.

Despite the pageantry and grandeur, the claws were empty. Whatever they had once held wasn't there.

The prisoner had escaped.

Embry's eyes scanned the room and found a figure framed by the walkway's arches, surrounded by the black metal and lit by the red light of Imperial symbols. Whoever it was reminded Embry of nobody more than Grandmaster Shan, but somehow more powerful and more graceful. Rather than being dwarfed by the room, she gave off the sense that the room had been built for her.

In a way, Embry supposed, it had. This couldn't be anyone but Revan herself.

So why did she feel darker than anybody Embry had met since Lord Vivicar?

The woman stepped into the light and Embry gasped.

In the histories, Revan had always been an imposing figure, tall and statuesque, walking in armour made for her and wearing robes and a helmet that made her seem almost mythical.

The armour was scratched and scorched, the robes hung slightly ragged, and her helmet was nowhere to be seen, but that made the sight of Revan no less worrying. Even if her presence hadn't filled Embry with a sense of grim foreboding, the famed Jedi's eyes glowed a brilliant, deep red.

"I think you're right," Embry said softly to Caein. "We're in trouble."

Soft, mocking laughter filled the room and Grand Moff Kilran stepped onto the distant platform as the Jedi prisoner stepped off the walkway and onto the grand platform before the two rescuers.

"Caein Thema and Embry Azeel," Kilran gloated. "I trust our guest needs no introduction?"

A lightsaber ignited on one side of the figure, then another one lit her other side. Both red, both casting light on the face of the woman they'd come to rescue.

Darth Revan readied her lightsabers and charged.


	4. The Rescue and Surrender

Embry threw up a barrier without even thinking of drawing her lightsaber. Then, as the first streak of red skittered off and the second struck, she did what the Force and her screaming body told her to do.

She let the barrier fall.

If she managed a scream as the blade tore through her ribs and stomach, she didn't hear it. Nor did she feel the impact as she hit the metal platform.

For long seconds, she did nothing but focus on breathing. Even that was agony. Eventually, though, she started to hear the clashing of lightsabers and deep, laboured breathing. No, wait, that was her breath.

She opened her eyes and found herself staring at a metal floor. It was an effort of sheer strength just to get breath in. The moment she relaxed, it was pushed out again by her her own weight.

It didn't matter. She wasn't dead, which meant she was healing. All she had to do was wait. There would be a perfect moment, Force willing.

"Revan," Caein gasped over the whirr and crack of lightsabers, "I know your story. This isn't you. You fought for the Republic. You fell and were redeemed. You've beaten the darkness before. You can do it again!"

Revan gave a deep, echoing laugh that wasn't anything like what Embry had imagined she sounded like. In a voice that filled the room as if there were speakers in the air itself, she said, "this one is not like your little Padawan, boy. It has been mine for three hundred years. Crushing your destiny will be its final act."

Kilran's voice carried across the room, then.

"The Emperor himself deigns to speak to you. I'm impressed. Perhaps I should have arranged for a trophy."

"You're right," Caein said, ignoring the sadistic moff. "This is nothing like my Padawan. This time, I can just kill the host to shed your power like a hideous cloak."

Then came a yell in the distance, growing louder and louder until it crescendoed with a clash of lightsabers.

Finally, Embry managed to shift and see Caein and Kira fighting Revan. Against the pair of them, the corrupted Jedi seemed to be struggling, reacting too slowly, often striking at nothing.

Then a wave of power lashed out and threw the two back, and a moment later it was Revan on the offensive.

"This," Kira growled, "is sithspit. Since when does the Empire get a legend in its side?"

"I've studied her technique. Just back me up."

"You're on your last leg. Have you tried the, "I know you're in there somewhere", pep talk?"

Caein barked a laugh. "Yes," he said. "It worked so well with you I thought I'd give it a go. You're welcome to try if you think you can do better."

It occurred to Embry that this was the first time she'd ever heard Caein speak while fighting. It also occurred to her that there was a dangerous-looking Sith standing over her, only it was a hologram. An enormous one.

The figure stood, watching silently, fifteen meters tall of powerful limbs, broad shoulders, and a bald head. He looked as unhealthy as all Sith tended to, and there was a respirator over his mouth. His clothes were black. They were blue in the hologram, but they were black.

Embry was almost proud of that observation. Maybe it was the blood loss.

And now Zenith was here. That was good. No, it was bad. He'd be killed.

The Jedi moved a hand, or at least a couple of fingers, trying to build a barrier for the freedom fighter, but it just wouldn't come.

Where was T7? He should be nearby, shouldn't he? It was like he'd disappeared the moment Revan attacked.

By the Force, everything hurt, from her eyelashes to her heart. Embry heard the hiss of a kolto applicator.

"Revan!" Kira's voice rang out loud, not breathless like Caein's. "I know what you're feeling, but you can fight it. You're a hero. You made a vow, I've read it. I've seen the mask in storyb- AAAGH!"

There was a crash, then a thud and the clatter of a falling lightsaber, but Embry couldn't see past Zenith's lekku. She couldn't see what was happening, all she could hear was Caein's roar and a frenzy of lightsaber strikes.

She tried to sit up, even managed to get to her elbows.

"Lie down-"

"Help me up," she said, as calmly as she could manage.

He helped her up, at least as far as sitting straight so she could see what was happening.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a little droid darting across the walkway towards the central platform. It was the duel between her Jedi companions and Revan that stole her attention, though.

Jedi Master Embry Azeel would admit to anyone that she knew little of lightsaber combat. She'd reached knighthood by virtue of her strength in the Force and become a Jedi Master for political reasons. In truth, she could barely tell what was happening amidst the streaks of blue, green, and red. All she could tell was that Caein was moving backwards with every strike and he wasn't attacking nearly as often as Revan was.

Kira was on the ground by the wall, unmoving. Embry could barely move. If somebody didn't do something, a living legend was going to kill Caein, then the rest of them.

Zenith unslung his rifle.

"Wait."

Zenith looked to her.

"She's just a person," Embry said, as firmly as she could. He needed to understand.

The twi'lek looked from her to the fighting pair, his hands clenching tight on his rifle.

"He'd kill her," was all he said. There was a note of disgust in his voice. Then he put the rifle on his back and helped her stand.

Then another wave of power hit them, lifted them into the air, and kept them there. Caein was thrown back, then frozen in place, immobile.

Embry said the first thing that came to her mind, her favourite story Bastila had ever told her.

"Hey, hairless wookiee!"

Revan stopped still with a lightsaber raised over Caein's chest. Zenith gave Embry a look like she was insane.

T7, now surprisingly far below her, spun his head to face her, then kept moving across the walkway.

Kilran was in that direction. If only Embry could turn to see what he was doing, where he was.

Too late for that. Too late for anything but distracting the poor woman attacking them.

"We came to rescue you, you ungrateful monkey-lizard!"

The black-robed woman turned on her, and Embry had the time to think that Revan must have been wearing the same clothes for the last three hundred years before her stomach lurched. An instant later, the Jedi was floating over the endless pit beside the prison's walkway.

Now she could see Kilran, sort of. He stood on a distant platform, near one of the entryways, with a squad of soldiers. Embry couldn't see his expression, but she heard him say, "as much as I enjoy a production-"

Revan held out her other hand. Whatever the Grand Moff had been about to say was cut off as he and his squad slammed to the ground.

A full platform away and under the unseeing eyes of the great Sith holograms, T7 approached the prison's terminals.

"What did you call me?"

Revan's voice wasn't all-encompassing this time, or deep or masculine. It came out low and smooth, something that might be called handsome. More than anything, though, it was commanding in a way that made Embry wonder if the effect was completely natural.

It was exactly as Bastila described it, and that made Embry more confident, despite being held above a truly staggering fall. At least there was the pyramid below. At some point she might hit it and start sliding.

"I called you a hero, you drooling Bo'marr cast-off." When Revan didn't drop her, she continued in the same gentle tone she always used when talking to Sith. "We all did. And so did Bastila. I've spent hours talking with her holocron about-"

She cut off as she dropped half her height. Revan walked up to the edge of the platform, then pulled her close enough for the taller woman to reach out and grab. Embry floated there, helpless, as piercing, dark eyes bored into hers.

Then Revan's gaze flicked down towards Embry's wounded side.

"I killed you," Revan said, and her voice held a hint of that great echo from before.

Embry smiled. "The Force is my ally. It was yours, once, too, along with some good people."

"Dead people," Revan - or perhaps the other thing - boomed. Her voice became louder and more unnatural with every word as she declared, "this one is-"

"Not alone," finished a second disembodied voice.

The ghost who'd served as their guide appeared, almost physical in appearance, almost alive for a few flickering moments.

Revan stared and Embry felt herself wobble in the air.

"Enough." The Sith, the one who had been silently watching from the holograms until now, waved an imperious hand. "Kilran, end this. Now."

Kilran, however, did not end it. Instead, the door behind his squad slammed open and blaster fire could be heard from the corridor beyond. He and his entire squad took cover.

At the same time, the ghost of the Exile dove for Revan, arms outstretched. As they collided and Revan fell back, Embry fell.

It wasn't the long fall Revan might have expected, but only because Embry was ready for it. Without much control or real power, the mirialan girl slammed the Force into herself and was thrown onto the platform.

She rolled across the metal floor towards the prison door and slid to a stop near Kira. The Padawan still wasn't moving.

Embry didn't hesitate. She reached over and put a hand on Kira's shoulder. The girl was rattled, with a powerful concussion to go with lightsaber burns marking her arms and shoulders. Though she didn't have the energy to heal Kira quickly, Embry got to work while chaos erupted within the prison.

Kilran and his soldiers were caught between the turrets behind them and Zenith's blaster ahead. Caein darted between the archways of the nearest walkway, either trying to reach T7 on the central platform or headed for Kilran on the far left. The Exile was physically struggling with the darkness leaking out of Revan, tearing it off in seemingly-physical chunks.

Zenith threw a glance back at her, then a wide-eyed look at Revan, then shook his head and kept shooting at the Imperial soldiers.

It was a good effort, but Embry and Kira were out in the open for any Imperial troops who spotted them. If the Padawan didn't wake soon, there wasn't much chance of Embry healing her and protecting her at the same time. She needed something to rebalance the scales again.

She looked to the ghost. The Exile. What was his name, what was his name?

"Marik, " Embry called.

The ghost, who looked like he was physically grappling with the darkness smothering Revan, looked her way.

"I can protect her, but you have to keep the darkness steady!"

The ghost of the Jedi Exile, Marik Surik, nodded and glowed bright, pushing against the great shadow.

Whatever that thing was, it was more evil than anything Embry had ever imagined, and just as powerful. Just being close to it felt sickening. It wasn't here, though. Not really. This was just the thing's shadow, its fingerprint. And because of that, Embry had a way to stop it. All it would cost her would be a little bit of her life.

"I'm sorry, Kira," she whispered, and pulled her power away from the injured girl. She was stable, her brain had stopped bleeding, but if Embry didn't stay conscious through this, it would be up to Zenith to notice and drag both their bodies out of the line of fire.

Realistically, there was a valid question if Embry would survive the next few seconds.

"The Force is with me," Embry murmured and she focused her power into a familiar ritual. A part of her instinctively flinched away, already in pain and knowing how much more it would hurt in the seconds to come. So Embry looked to Revan.

Just a woman. A woman in pain, struggling against something trying to destroy her. The ghost of General Surik was a legend, too, in his own way. That didn't matter now. All that mattered was that Revan wasn't alone. Her friend had waited for three hundred years to help her today.

Embry watched the ghost's light dim, spending his own Force to keep the darkness off of his friend for seconds longer, and there was no doubt in her own mind.

"All will be well."

The Barsen'thor wove the Force, or perhaps her will only followed behind it. She could never tell. What she could tell was, though she gave the power willingly, it was pulled from her like breath sucked from her chest. It left her feeling empty, robbed, and in straining agony stretching from her chest to her limbs. Still, she worked onwards, weaving a cocoon for Revan, protecting her.

She wished she could heal the suffering woman at the same time, but Embry's power was only over the Force and physical things. The pain she felt in Revan would be there until Revan healed herself.

Until then, Embry could only protect her from this.

The woven barrier closed on itself and Embry rocked. Her vision blurred, lost colour. The blasterfire, Zenith's voice, and all the yelling went nearly silent in her ears. The smells of metal and sweat and burned flesh all faded away.

She held on. There wasn't anything to hold on to, but the Force was with her. It held to her as she held to it, clinging to its living form and, by it, to life itself. The Force had never abandoned her, even when she gave it away to others like this. It would always be there for her.

"...up, Jedi. Don't know what you did, but it's not going to mean much if you leave us with him."

Embry tried to speak, but it took two tries before she heard herself say, "I hear you, Zenith." It came out almost incomprehensible; she couldn't feel herself speak.

Sight came next, Zenith crouching over her. Then the part of touch where she could feel where her limbs were. Finally, she managed to raise her head to see what was happening.

The prison was at war. Caein was on the far platform fighting alongside Revan, in personal combat with Grand Moff Kilran. Blaster bolts filled the air, none aimed near Embry or Zenith, as soldiers fired across the far platform, trying to keep their distance from the lightsabers.

And then it was over. With a dismissive wave, Revan swept her hand and threw entire squads of Imperial soldiers off the platform. A scant second, later, Kilran was on the ground and Caein was pulling a lightsaber from his chest. There was nothing Embry could do. She could barely see straight and wouldn't have had the power to heal Kilran, let alone lift so many soldiers safely.

So they fell, every Imperial left in the station. Dead.

Another failure. Just like the last mission. Just like the station's guards.

Embry took a deep breath and let it out, just to focus her mind, to try to move past this.

Zenith said, "you'd have saved them."

He said it in a tone of disgust, but it wasn't aimed at her. He glared across the prison room towards the far platform instead.

Then he shook his head and looked down at her.

Embry smiled weakly at him. "I might have saved somebody, at least."

The rebel grunted. "Hope she's worth worth every ship," he said. "Can't imagine the fleet's in good shape after this."

Again, something she might never have expected him to say.

Maybe, after everything, she had saved somebody today. Just one person.

That was enough, if that was what the Force needed.

"Kira," she said, as loudly as she could. It came out no louder than a whisper.

Zenith lifted her to her feet. When she couldn't even keep those, he lifted her off them. Kira was still on the ground.

"Stable," he said bluntly.

He carried her towards the walkway.

"I gave Kilran the chance he deserved."

At that, Embry was reminded of their constant, silent observer, the massive Sith, standing in bright blue holograms across the entire room. She and Zenith both looked up at him as they crossed the walkway. He glared down at them.

"You will not receive the same."

The image blinked out.

For a moment, the room went darker. Then it shook. The ground quaked and threw Embry and Zenith to the floor. Even Caein fell, though Revan kept her feet and T7 barely seemed to notice. Then, more than quaking, the entire room seemed to jerk to one side then the other and emergency lights came on as the massive prison doors started slamming closed in the distance.

Oteg appeared in the holoimage next.

"We're reading structural damage on the Maelstrom prison. If you can, get a shuttle and get out of there! I'm sending coordinates to the fleet's position."

Then another voice called out over the quaking, somehow loud enough to be heard even amidst the noise.

"Droid! Yes, you." Revan was sprinting towards the terminals surrounding the central platform. She landed beside T7 in a kneeling position, with a hand on his head. "I need to contact the Imperial fleet."

She looked up at the image of Oteg. "Are you the Republic fleet? What are your numbers? Droid, I need a scan. Here, I can help. Negotiating angle! I need something I can work with."

Revan moved so quickly it made Embry's head spin, yelling at Oteg, talking to T7 and typing commands into the terminal simultaneously, all before turning to point at Caein and demand…

A negotiating angle. Something to save Imperial lives as well as their own.

There'd only been one thing Kilran had told them. The Imperial Fleet had beaten the Republic here, arrived before the navigation-

"Navigation," Embry coughed. Too quietly, but Zenith heard.

Zenith took up the cry. From the edge of the platform, he yelled, "the nebula outside is unnavigable! Only the Republic fleet has the tech for it!"

Revan gave them a second's incredulous look, then nodded. Her hands danced over the console controls and she gave her next orders just as quickly as the last. "Republic fleet! Get your people into the Nebula and surround the Imperial fleet. I can't believe I need to say that… Hurry about it! And don't strike until _and unless_ I give the order. Droid, what's your name? Alright, T7, cut them off and get me the Imperials, please."

Oteg was silenced mid-question and the image of an Imperial officer replaced him. A thin, sallow man who managed to look both surprised and bored at the same time.

"What is this? No matter. Make it quick, Republic, you're about to be nebular debris."

Revan made it very quick. "I demand your immediate surrender!" she yelled.

The Imperial frowned, then made a gesture. Seconds later, the bombardment stopped and Zenith started pulling Embry back to her feet.

"I'll have you say that again, Republic."

Revan grinned. "You'll surrender or you'll never make it out of the Maelstrom alive. How many Imperials do you have on that ship, Admiral? How many in your fleet? Are you willing to consign them all to death to kill just five people?"

"Can you walk?" Zenith asked Embry.

Embry shook her head.

Zenith grunted and continued carrying her towards Revan.

The holographic Imperial glared down at them.

"Five? What are you talking about? Where are the station's guards?"

Revan changed the subject.

"You haven't given me your name, Admiral," she said conversationally. "Not very diplomatic of you."

The Imperial actually rolled his eyes when he responded, "Admiral Eyret Ohden, at your service, I'm sure, Miss…?"

Revan frowned exaggeratedly. "Really?" she asked. "After all these years, you're not aware of who was locked up in this prison?"

"I don't know which prisoner-"

"There was only one prisoner here," Revan interrupted. "There's only ever been one prisoner here in the Maelstrom Prison, as long as it's existed."

"Put me down," Embry said to Zenith in a faint whisper. She managed, only barely, to tilt her head towards the computer terminal. "Get Kira. Please."

Zenith met her eyes with an obstinate glare, but he put her down. T7 gave her a quiet beep of greeting and Caein approached cautiously. Zenith cast him a surprisingly wary glare, then gave Embry one last look and left back across the walkway.

In the so-called diplomatic negotiations, Admiral Ohden snorted. "You must think me a fool. The prison's design is hundreds of years old."

"And the technology within, surprisingly modern," Revan added, reading through screens of data on the terminal. "Updated as recently as three months ago, from the looks of it. Have you ever wondered why?"

When the Admiral hesitated to reply, Revan continued.

"For the same reason there were almost two hundred soldiers, Sith, and droids guarding this prison, and that your leader brought forty soldiers onto the station. The same reason why they're all dead now."

Revan actually leered at the image of the Admiral in a way that sent shivers down Embry's spine.

"I am somebody the Emperor is afraid of. Which is why you will surrender, and I will allow half of the crew of every ship in your fleet to leave the Maelstrom. The other half will board the prison, unarmed, and remain here until they are taken aboard Republic ships as prisoners of war."

"And why would I do that?"

"Eyret, I'm disappointed. An admiral so unaware of his history. Think back. Ask your crew if necessary. Think back three hundred years and then ask yourself again why you should surrender."

The Admiral frowned, then looked away.

Then his image disappeared.

Revan stepped back, patted T7, and scanned the room. Her gaze settled on Embry, though it was hard to say whether she looked concerned or surprised.

"You look like you're in worse shape than I am, girl," Revan said. Then she looked at Caein. "You have any kolto for her? Or for me? Never mind. Do what you have to. T7, Republic fleet, fast."

Oteg appeared in the holograms in the next moment and, just as before, Revan started speaking before he could open his mouth.

"Admiral," Revan said, addressing the Jedi in the same way, the same tone, she had the Imperial officer. "I assume you know who I am."

Even as Oteg started to nod, Revan continued, "send a report on your fleet composition. I will keep you apprised of your orders. And if they open fire on the prison, knock them out of the skies."

Before Oteg could reply, his image disappeared and Revan turned towards her rescuers. "Names and reputations. Fast, or I pull it from your minds."

Caein Thema spoke, gesturing first to himself, then Embry, then to the walkway where Zenith was helping his Padawan across. "Caein Thema. Don't mention my name if you want prisoners. The one you want for negotiations is Master Azeel, the Barsen'thor. Neither my Padawan or Master Azeel's companion have a significant reputation."

Revan's eyes widened. She looked down at Embry and raised an eyebrow. "A Barsen'thor?"

Embry started to nod, but it was Zenith who spoke up, crossing the platform with Kira's arm over his shoulders.

"She saves people," was all he said.

"Redeems Sith," added Kira.

"Heals people," Caein finished.

Embry wanted to say something, to deny the reputation out of simple humility, but they weren't… wrong, exactly. All of those were things she tried to do, things she focused her life around. It just felt strange to be singled out for it, as if they weren't things other people tried to do.

Revan nodded, muttered, "hope my reputation's what I think it is," and flicked a switch.

Twenty-meter-tall images of Admiral Ohden appeared up and down the prison, just as before.

Zenith put Kira down beside Embry. Instinctively, Embry tried to move her hand to rest on Kira's, hoping to heal the Padawan, but Kira moved her hand away faster than Embry could move her own. Neither speed, admittedly, was very quick. Embry was gaining some mobility, but she wouldn't be standing under her own power soon.

"Have you figured it out, then?" Revan asked. "I don't suppose there are many other black-robed women who disappeared mysteriously three centuries back."

"Before addressing an obvious impossibility," Ohden said drily, "we have another one to clarify. Who delayed the bombardment of Taral V?"

Revan opened her mouth to speak, but Zenith cleared his throat and dragged Embry to her feet. He ended up carrying her forward as Revan stepped aside. Embry could barely keep her head up, but she managed a sort of nod at the Admiral.

"My name is Embry Azeel," she said as loudly as she could. It came out at barely more than speaking volume. "I tried to save the base at Taral V."

Admiral Ohden considered for several seconds, then stepped aside. A moment later, a pure-blood Sith in dark robes stepped into sight.

"Private Naiyu was part of the garrison at Taral V. Tell me her fate."

Again, Revan made to speak up, but this time it was Embry who overrode her.

Negotiations could wait until after this man received the news he needed.

Embry did her best to stand in such a way that, on the other end of the holocommunicator, she might be looking the Sith in the eyes. As kindly as she could, she said, "I'm sorry. I could only delay the bombardment. As far as I know, the people there were left undefended after I was… forced to leave. I won't counsel you to give up hope-"

"Very well," the Sith said. the Sith interrupted her. "Do you recognize the name of Lord Indara?"

"Indara? You mean Varus Indara? We met on Taris." Embry wasn't sure where the man was going with all this, and her head was starting to spin at the effort of talking so loudly for so long.

But the Sith Lord just nodded and asked, "do you vouch for the prisoner's identity?"

"Yes," Embry said without thinking. It was the truth, after all. Then she started to worry. After all, Revan hadn't actually said who she was.

"As do I, for hers," Revan said, taking control of the conversation neatly. "The Barsen'thor guarantees the safety of any prisoners entrusted to our care as well as any coordinates given to your fleet."

The Sith nodded, then his image disappeared.

Embry tried to look at Revan. Thankfully, Zenith figured out what she wanted and pulled her to face the other woman.

Revan also looked to her.

"You really do have a reputation," she remarked.

Embry shook her head. Tried to. "I have no idea what's going on."

"Not surprised," grunted Zenith, shifting her weight against him. "You look half dead, Jedi."

"Nine-tenths. Something the Sith Lord would have noticed," Revan agreed. "Yet he didn't order an attack… who is Lord Indara?"

Embry thought back to a long conversation with a misguided man who'd just needed somebody to understand his pain. A good man just waiting to be given a chance.

"A man I met on Taris," she explained. "He joined the Jedi Order some time later."

Revan nodded slowly and Zenith looked like, if there were a stoic and grim equivalent to it, he'd be rolling his eyes. Even so, neither said anything about it.

"How long has the Emperor been waging war on the Republic?" Revan asked instead.

"Depends on who you ask," Zenith said.

"Decades," growled Caein. "With more decades of preparing for the next attack."

Embry wanted to say more, but it was exhausting just keeping her head up now. Instead, she just watched the conversation happen.

Revan scowled and shifted her weight in a way that looked like Caein, hands resting near her hips and standing loose and ready.

"He played me for a fool," she said, and there was a cold fury laced in her words that made Embry worry.

Revan was a legend, but she was also a cautionary tale. Bastila had been firm on both counts. Perhaps, like before, Revan would need friends to bring out the best in her.

Embry opened her mouth to speak, to offer something, but the prison's holocommunicator flashed on again and Admiral Ohden spoke.

"Very well. We accept your terms, on one condition."

"We will hear it," Revan answered, turning to the console again.

"The Butcher Blademaster will be disarmed during the prisoner transfer, his weapons given to Knight Embry Azeel."

Embry blinked, confused. Then Caein snorted and stepped forward.

"I suppose that means the Imperials on Taral V survived," he commented in a disgusted tone.

"Caein," Embry began, "what-"

"We accept your terms," Revan interrupted. "But beware breaking them. I am more than ready to avenge three hundred years imprisoned."

Again, the Sith Lord stepped into the image. "Know this, Darth Revan. Lord Fenrar keeps his word."

Then he turned slightly and actually bowed. "And, Knight Azeel, that I repay my debts."

Embry couldn't bow. She barely managed to nod her head and think straight at the same time. Even so, she smiled at the trust the Sith Lord showed her.

"Lord Fenrar, I'm grateful for your faith in me, but I don't know of any debt you owe me. And," she added, her smile becoming apologetic, "I was recently given the rank of Jedi Master."

Fenrar nodded in acknowledgement. "Master Azeel. Any woman who can stay the wrath of the Butcher is worthy of the rank, I have no doubt."

Embry glanced at Caein, but again, Revan moved before Embry could ask anything.

"We will transmit docking coordinates for your shuttles," Revan declared, moving to do exactly that. "R- Revan, out."

Any other time, Embry would have paid more attention to the stutter. At the moment the holocall ended, however, she was too distracted, too worried by the things she'd been told. As best she'd tried, her voice had shaken while she spoke with the Lord Fenrar. Now, she turned to Caein.

"I'd like an explanation, please," she said.

Caein nodded. "It's a title the Imperials gave me a few months ago. It's a bit dramatic, but it keeps them afraid."

"Why do you have a name like that?" Embry pressed.

Revan turned to Zenith. "I'd like your explanation first, actually."

What did she-

Embry gasped. Of course. The reason Zenith had been so quiet. Caein tried to kill the Imperials Embry had tried to save.

Zenith's eyes flicked to Caein's sabers and Embry remembered her other duty.

"Your lightsabers, Knight Thema."

Her voice was fading. It had no strength in it. Still, Caein Thema nodded and handed his blades to Zenith silently.

Zenith flinched away.

I won't let them hurt you. You can say what you're feeling."

When Zenith said nothing, Embry asked, "please?"

Zenith met her gaze, then Revan's. When he looked in Caein's direction, though, Embry stepped forward. It was excruciating and her vision started to go black, but she gritted her teeth and begged the Force to grant her a few moments. Zenith needed this.

Perhaps the Force provided, perhaps Embry managed it herself, but she stood up in front of the freedom fighter and looked up into his eyes.

He looked at her for mere seconds that lasted for hours. Then he nodded.

She sagged forward and fell into his arms and barely heard the words he said next.

"You saved the soldiers on Taral V, Jedi. We brought them into the base and took them underground. Had Sith back on Balmorra who didn't scare soldiers as much as Thema did just being there. They called him the Butcher Blademaster." He glared at the Knight and held his rifle tight. "He… we... left them to die."

"Only because trying to kill them didn't seem to work," Knight Thema grumbled. "Every time I tried, you poured power into keeping them alive. Nearly killed yourself."

Zenith glared at Caein. Embry could feel it, even if she couldn't see anything but the twi'lek's chest. Even that looked somehow greyer than usual.

"I'm surprised they detected us leaving the airspace," admitted Thema. He actually sounded more annoyed than ashamed. "If they'd continued the bombardment, they would have torn apart the area and killed all of their own soldiers. Ironic justice." He snorted.

"Zenith," Embry croaked, "what do you think of all this?"

She felt Zenith take a long, deep breath, gathering his will.

"I think the Jedi Order needs to clean house," said the rebel. "Once, I'd have said to execute the whole platoon, armed or not. But it's not the same with Jedi. People like you, like him, killing people like me, it's bad enough when we're armed. Without weapons, it's like butchering civilians."

His next words were a growl. "That's exactly the word for it."

"An unarmed enemy is still an enemy. Let them go and they'll just come back later, and this time they'll know your weaknesses."

Zenith turned and, in a moment of kind consideration, turned Embry to look at Revan with him.

She looked back at them, dispassionate.

"I think I've figured the four of you out," she said, then gestured back to the platform's console. "T7 and I just set the station airlock to autodock the incoming shuttles, so we'll skip the details and the recent history of the Jedi Order I clearly need. Caein, you're to take no action until and unless things come to violence. Zenith, put the Barsen'thor down, she's barely conscious. Then get your blaster ready."

"Since when are you in charge?" Padawan Kira asked in a voice surprisingly strong for somebody who'd been in worse shape than Embry minutes ago.

Revan gave a wry smile as the doors from the airlocks opened. "I'd say I have three hundred years of seniority that put me in charge."

Then her smile dropped, chased away by a feeling of melancholy strong enough to feel through the Force. Revan turned to approach the arriving Imperials.

Zenith did as Revan had ordered and there wasn't much Embry could do to stop him. She ended up lying against the computer console, leaned up against T7, watching the proceedings helplessly.

The Imperial troops marched through the room's second set of doors in an ordered line and then came to a stop at the edge of their platform, shoulder to shoulder with Lord Fenrar at their front.

Fenrar was the only one who stepped onto the walkway. He was also the only one who was armed.

Zenith stayed close to her, holding his rifle and kneeling amongst her, T7, and Kira Carsen.

Revan strode forward to meet Lord Fenrar, coming face-to-face with him halfway across the walkway. There were three weak or unarmed Jedi behind Revan, with T7 and Zenith protecting them. Behind Lord Fenrar was a rapidly-growing group of hundreds of Imperials on the far platform.

Neither group could be said to have much of a way to escape. For the Imperials, escape lay in the airlock and shuttles they'd used to arrive. For the four rescuers, the only way out of the room was back across the walkway they'd arrived on and then into the station itself. That meant both sides were probably feeling cornered and needed reassurance.

Embry tried to get up, tried to come even close to standing, but she had to admit to herself there was nothing she could do. What happened next wasn't up to her, it was up to the woman who'd lost everything and been trapped in a prison for three hundred years.

So as Revan and Fenrar met, she felt the tension as strongly as anybody else.

Then Fenrar knelt.

Embry breathed a small sigh of relief at that. With so many soldiers around, even unarmed, there was no guarantee of a peaceful resolution to all of this. With the one who was certainly their most powerful member kneeling to the Republic representative, at least everybody knew where they stood.

Diplomacy was always complicated. There was always trust to consider.

"Half of the crew of each ship in our fleet, as commanded, Darth Revan," Fenrar intoned. He held up his lightsaber in both hands, presenting it as a gift with head bowed.

He didn't see Revan's flinch at the sound of her title, but Embry was watching closely enough to see the way the cloak shifted, the tiny step backwards, before the woman collected herself and took the lightsaber in her hand.

"As agreed," she said, hefting the lightsaber speculatively. Then she turned and beckoned him back towards the central platform and its controls. And, of course, the five rescuers.

Without T7, it still only took Revan a few seconds to send a signal to the Republic fleet. Oteg was given just as much chance to speak as before, and the conversation ended after two short, clipped sentences from Revan. Then she turned and walked towards Embry and the others. She also beckoned Caein Thema closer.

Fenrar tensed as the Knight approached, but Revan spoke in a tone that distracted them all.

"This is a simple exchange. It will also be an interrogation. Starting with the Republic's current policies on prisoners of war. Then we'll get into recent history and the strategic situation. From both sides." At those words, she turned her gaze on Fenrar. Her smile was somehow both reassuring and intimidating. "As long as that's within the terms of this war, of course."

Fenrar nodded and Revan began. It was a litany of questions, asked of the entire group more often than not. They answered what they could, but Revan was thorough. As often as not, it was Zenith answering questions about Republic policy, despite his world having spent so much of its recent history outside the Republic.

Revan wasn't yet out of questions when the Republic Fleet arrived, but Lord Fenrar left to join the other prisoners with only a word of farewell. He gave both Revan and Embry slight bows, then hurried across the walkway. The last Embry saw of him, he was happily greeting a tall blonde woman in Imperial armour.

Embry smiled, watching them go.

Five hundred fifty-seven people saved from this war. Most were simply soldiers, many from the Taral V garrison. The minimum, the least valuable, the Empire could spare.

Revan had only smiled at that and said it was good to let people think they'd outwitted her.

Now, she looked grim. The group moved together, following far behind the Imperials, and eventually boarded a separate shuttle in silence. When the shuttle pilot had stopped staring at Revan and gone up front, she said, "I may need to decline becoming a general again."

Zenith helped Embry to sit down and she heard Caein say, "the Republic needs you, Revan."

Embry had a moment to think that Revan didn't like that name before the realization that everyone was safe hit the little Jedi and she passed out, dead asleep.


	5. Epilogue

Embry thanked Private Tesan as he sat her down in Oteg's meeting room, then softly greeted the other four people in the room.

It was strange to see T7 with Oteg, Caein Thema, and Revan. Zenith and Kira Carsen hadn't been allowed to stay for the debriefing, and Knight Thema didn't seem the type to insist on the company of his droid over his Padawan.

Then again, it was clear Embry had terribly misjudged Caein Thema. It might be best not to assume anything about him until she had time to take him back to the Council.

"Barsen'thor," Revan returned the greeting. "How are the prisoners?"

"The Imperial citizens will be alright," Embry said weakly. Most of her energy was being used to keep from slumping forward in her seat. "I only went to remind our crew that this is the first opportunity that the people from the Imperial fleet will have had to see the Republic outside of the battlefield. It's our chance to show who we really are."

Revan nodded, then turned to the others. T7 idled up beside her and whirred encouragingly. Revan patted him on the head, then spoke.

"If I fail," she said, continuing whatever she'd been talking about before Embry arrived, "it will be up to all of you to continue the war alone. Remember, the Emperor is not just the head of the snake. He is a monster unlike any you can imagine. He must be destroyed at any cost."

"Let me come with you, Revan," Caein pleaded. "You're weakened. This could be the deciding moment of the Republic's history."

If Revan was planning to go off alone to stop the war between the Republic and Empire, Embry had to agree with Caein's sentiment, if not the idea of him going.

Revan shook her head. "I will be going alone. I've been betrayed one too many times. Even if I hadn't, there's no guarantee you can trust me."

She faltered, seemingly distracted, even hurt by the realization of what she'd just said. Then she stood, raising a hand to stop any conversation.

"Oteg," she commanded. "Ready my ship. Knight Thema, leave. I will speak with the Barsen'thor myself."

Oteg nodded amiably and turned to leave. Caein Thema looked more reluctant, but followed.

"Teeseven…"

The droid stopped following his master out of the room and turned his head to look at Revan.

"You can stay," Revan said. Embry thought she sounded almost uncertain.

T7 must have thought the same, because he turned and beeped a quick goodbye to Knight Thema before rolling back into the room.

Through it all, Embry watched silently. Tired.

Exhausted.

The door closed and Revan sat down in a chair, facing Embry.

"You spoke with Bastila?" Revan asked. Her voice cracked slightly.

Embry nodded, then tilted her head to the side. It didn't seem like something to be answered so simply.

"It depends on how much of a person you believe is left in a holocron," the girl said. "I feel as if I've spoken with Bastila Shan, yes."

Revan nodded slowly. "How much did she tell you? Heh. You got the hairless wookiee story, apparently."

Embry hesitated. "Enough to know your name is-"

Revan raised her hand and shook her head. In a smooth motion, she stood and took a few steps across the room before pacing back, letting Embry see the pained look on her face.

"My name is…" the woman grit her teeth and powered onwards, "Revan. Anything else I was ever called doesn't matter anymore. The family that called me by another name is long dead. Stolen…"

"There is a line in the Jedi Code-" Embry started, but again Revan cut her off.

"No death?" Revan snapped, whirling and glaring at Embry. Embry bore the glare with as much sympathy as possible. "Only the Force? I've heard it. Except I didn't die! I was _used_ to fuel the Emperor's addiction to the Force for three hundred years, and when I was finally released or escaped or whatever happened, it was because the war I gave up my life to prevent had already started! Everybody I ever loved is dead and the Republic is _wasting_ the chance I gave it!"

Embry stood, stumbled, and straightened herself as best she could, though it was difficult to look Revan in the eyes. Thankfully, T7 came close to let the little Jedi lean on him.

She shook her head. "I never liked that way of looking at things," Embry said. "I would say there is death, but there is also the Force. I'm sorry you've lost your friends. Bastila always said they were good, loyal people. They are gone, they died, but you were needed. You gave them all the chance to live, and they knew it, even if they didn't know how or why."

Revan's expression shifted as Embry spoke, from disbelief to indignance to hope. Finally, she asked, "they knew?"

Embry nodded. "It was Admiral Onasi who kept your name in the history books. Mandalore the Preserver never stopped building and fighting for you. They all believed in you."

Revan stared at Embry for long moments, then turned away to activate a holoterminal and start opening files. There didn't even seem to be rhyme or reason to it, just a search for something to distract her from her thoughts.

Embry sat back down more heavily than she liked, and she waited.

She didn't have to wait long.

"You preach like an old Master," Revan said without looking from the terminal, "except you actually feel it. Must be nice. That's not why I stopped to talk to you, though. Your friends told me about the mission to Taral V. I expect I'll hear more like it if I ask around. I don't want to hear any new stories after this. Understood?"

No, Embry didn't understand, and she shook her head to make that clear.

"Stop risking your life for people who want you dead," Revan clarified. The holo in front of her blurred as overlays filled it. "It will only break your heart, then get you killed."

"That didn't happen when you were saved," Embry said.

"When I was saved," Revan brought up a grand mural of her adventure onto the holo, then focused on one image, Bastila Shan with grey skin and golden eyes, filled with indescribable rage. "When I was saved, it was nearly at the cost of Bastila's identity. It _was_ at the cost of... mine."

Embry wanted to stand. She truly did. Even if it wouldn't help, it seemed that Revan needed somebody to stand with her, today especially. As un-Jedi as the thought might be, Revan was a woman in dire need of a hug. But Embry's legs wouldn't support her now, so she was left with words and nothing else.

"Bastila told me she wouldn't have traded her time with you for anything. She only wished she'd learned a little faster."

And when Revan hadn't taken her on the quest into the Unknown Regions, Bastila had been left wondering if she hadn't been strong or loyal enough. All of the Ebon Hawk's crew had been, except for T3-M4. But Revan didn't need to know that. It would be unkind to cast the love they'd all had for Revan in that light.

They'd all done their best.

"You should wait," Embry continued. "I have some people I've promised to help, but afterwards we could work together. You would have time to heal. Three hundred years is a very long time to be trapped, physically and mentally. I could even heal your scars, if you'd like."

"You're too kind," Revan said. She turned away from the holoterminal, leaving an image of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in flames, and her expression held only pain and pity. "I don't mean that in a good way, Barsen'thor. I mean you are too kind for your own good. It's going to get you killed one day."

She stopped and peered speculatively underneath Embry's hood. There was a moment of silence, then understanding settled on the woman's face.

"I would take that offer," Revan said, "if I could spare the time for you to regain your strength. I _do_ want mine gone. Maybe afterwards, if I survive."

"You deserve to survive." Embry looked up and met Revan's eyes. "You deserve to live."

Revan's eyes widened and she took a step back. That happened sometimes, when Embry told people that. Like it was some great revelation that each and every person deserved to be happy. Revan had seemed like somebody who didn't understand that, and her reaction said as much.

The woman recovered herself and forced a laugh, shaking her head. "I wouldn't make someone like you part of what I plan to do, Barsen'thor-"

"Embry. You can call me Embry."

Revan looked down at her, processing that for a moment. Then she nodded, as if a decision had been made. "Embry. I'm going to walk out that door, and you can't follow me. That's for the best. When it's all over, either way, the Republic will need someone like you, just like it needed Carth."

The dark-robed woman squatted down and looked up into Embry's face. Her eyes didn't wander. She met Embry's eyes and ignored the scars completely. "There is one thing you can do for me, once I'm gone. Take care of my great… whatever granddaughter, will you?"

Embry frowned in confusion. "Your granddaughter?"

Revan stood, laughing, though the sound was bitter. "Ask Bastila next time you talk to her. She… tell her thank-you. From me and Carth."

Then, with no more than a pat on T7's head, Revan strode out of the room.

Embry laboured to turn and watch her go.

There was a flicker of black robes at the door, and Embry hoped she would see Revan again some day.

"Go get Knight Thema, would you, T7?" she asked, leaning forward to brush the little droid fondly. "I have a few things to say to that man."

T7 beeped apprehensively and rolled out of the room, leaving Embry alone with the holoterminal still displaying dozens of images.

Embry leaned forward to look, but found herself slumping forward. She forced herself to stay awake, at least until she could speak to Caein Thema.

The war was going to be a long one, she felt. In this part of it, there wasn't much left for Embry to do, except…

Her thoughts went out to Revan once more.

"May the Force be with you," the Barsen'thor whispered.


End file.
